Iran ready for nuclear dialogue: Ahmadinejad

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures during a news conference after his address to the Durban Review Conference on racism at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva April 20, 2009.

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran is ready for further dialogue with world powers on its nuclear program, but will keep defending its right to develop atomic energy for peaceful purposes, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday.

He also said Tehran awaited "practical changes" from the Obama administration and that it supported dialogue with the United States based on mutual respect and justice.

"Nuclear energy, if it is good, it should be for all. And if it is bad, nobody should use that technology," Ahmadinejad told a news conference in Geneva after addressing a United Nations conference on racism.

"We are ready for dialogue," he added.

Iran says it is developing uranium enrichment technology as part of its efforts to generate peaceful nuclear energy -- not, as Washington and some of its allies contend, in order to build an atomic bomb.

The United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain said this month they would ask European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to invite Iran to a meeting to find a diplomatic solution to the long-running nuclear dispute.

Ahmadinejad said in published remarks on Friday that his country would soon give its official response to the invitation.

Iran is at odds with the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is worried by Tehran's efforts to enrich uranium. This can be a route to making the fissile material for atomic weapons.

"Unfortunately, some Western governments did not fulfill their obligations, but they expect us to carry out the obligations beyond the obligations set forth by the IAEA," Ahmadinejad said.

Iran, as a member of the Vienna-based watchdog, and signatory of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), expects to enjoy its rights within the IAEA framework, he said.

Earlier, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told Ahmadinejad that it was important for his country to play a constructive role in world affairs, according to a U.N. statement. Ban met Ahmadinejad, at what U.N. officials said was Iran's request, on the fringes of the controversial conference on racism, which was boycotted by the United States and several Western countries.

A U.N. statement said Ban, a former South Korean foreign minister, had stressed to Ahmadinejad "the need to look forward to the future of unity, not to the past of divisiveness."

But the Iranian president prompted a walkout when, during his speech to the U.N. forum, he accused Israel of establishing a "cruel and repressive racist regime" over the Palestinians.

The U.N. statement said Ban and Ahmadinejad had discussed issues related to regional peace and security, Afghanistan, Iran and the Middle East, as well as the Iranian nuclear issue.

(Reporting by Stephanie Nebehay and Robert Evans; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)