Iranian designated madman Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is gloating: Ahmadinejad: Iran to talk, U.S. gave in.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s president said Thursday his regime is ready for talks over its nuclear capabilities, but he sent mixed signals on how much is open for negotiation and suggested Tehran has the upper hand in its showdown with the West.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated Iran’s position that uranium enrichment is an untouchable national right, a clear jab at the West two days after Iran received a package of economic and technological incentives to suspend the program. …

Ahmadinejad’s speech, broadcast live on Iranian state television, hit back with hard-line rhetoric.

Iran’s “enemies must know that whether the Iranian nation is going to hold talks or not, whether you frown or not … the Iranian nation will not retreat from the path of progress and obtaining advanced technology one iota,” he said.

He also praised Iran for standing up to “international monopolists,” a reference to the United States and its allies.

They have “been defeated in the face of your resistance and solidarity and have been forced to acknowledge your dignity and greatness,” Ahmadinejad told the crowd.

UPDATE at 6/8/06 3:58:48 pm:

And this week, even as the Western powers were presenting Iran with their package of appeasements incentives, Iran started a new round of uranium enrichment.

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran launched a fresh round of uranium enrichment this week just as world powers offered it incentives to halt nuclear fuel work with the potential to produce atomic bombs, a U.N. watchdog said on Thursday.

Iran has said it will seriously consider Tuesday’s overture but a watchdog report made clear Tehran was pushing ahead anyway with efforts to expand a fledgling enrichment program and increase its bargaining clout in any future negotiations. …

The new International Atomic Energy Agency report said Iran had resumed feeding UF6 gas, feedstock for nuclear fuel, into a pilot cascade of 164 centrifuge enrichment machines at Natanz on Tuesday after a five-week pause of test runs without UF6.

That was the day European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana visited Tehran to hand over the batch of trade, technological and security incentives for Iran to mothball nuclear fuel production.