TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in Tehran Tuesday that new U.N. sanctions over his country's nuclear programs would be illegal.

Ahmadinejad said at a news conference that imposing new sanctions on Iran would be akin to "playing with the lion's tail," CNN reported.

As the Iranian president marked the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Seyyed Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani was in Berlin meeting with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The United States and other Western nations are calling for stiffer U.N. Security Council sanctions on Iran, which has ignored international demands that it stop producing high-grade nuclear fuel.

Iran insists its nuclear program is intended to produce power but other countries suspect Tehran is intending to build nuclear arms.

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