VIENNA, Austria (AP) – European nations set the stage Wednesday for referral of Iran to the U.N. Security Council within days, submitting a text calling for such a move to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s decision-making board.

In arguing for involvement of the top U.N. body, which could impose sanctions, the draft resolution expressed “the absence of confidence that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.”

Submission means the 35-nation board of governors has to make a decision on approval at its meeting that starts Thursday. With Russia and China throwing their support behind referral on Monday after months of opposition, the motion was expected to pass by a wide margin.

In Tehran, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator warned against referral.

Ali Larijani said the Islamic republic would retaliate by resuming large-scale enrichment of uranium and end its practices of allowing intrusive U.N. inspections of its facilities under the so-called “Additional Protocol” that it has signed but not ratified.

Iran insists its nuclear program is civilian only and has no other purpose than to generate power, but the U.S. and its allies fear Tehran is seeking to develop atomic weapons. Enrichment can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the material needed to build a warhead.

The call for referral to the Security Council was contained in a confidential resolution obtained by The Associated Press.

It “requests the director general to report to the Security Council” on steps Iran needs to take to dispel international suspicion it could be seeking to make nuclear arms.

Although Russia and China are longtime allies and trading partners of Iran, they agreed Monday on the need for Security Council involvement with Britain, France and the United States _ the three other permanent Security Council members with veto power _ in the start of a protracted process that could end in sanctions for Tehran.

President Bush stepped up pressure on Iran in his State of the Union address Tuesday night, saying “the nations of the world must not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons.” He said the United States “will continue to rally the world to confront these threats.”

Bush also said Iran was “held hostage by a small clerical elite that is isolating and repressing its people” and must stop sponsoring terrorists in the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck back Wednesday, vowing to resist the pressure of “bully countries” and saying Tehran will continue its nuclear program.

The draft calls on Iran to:

_Reestablish a freeze on uranium enrichment and related activities.

_Consider whether to stop construction of a heavy water reactor that could be the source of plutonium for weapons.

_Formally ratify an agreement allowing the IAEA greater inspecting authority.

_Give the IAEA additional power in its investigation of Iran’s nuclear program, including “access to individuals” for interviews, as well as to documentation on its black market nuclear purchases, equipment that could be used for nuclear and non-nuclear purposes and “certain military-owned workshops” where nuclear activities might be going on.

The draft also asks IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei to “convey to the Security Council” his report to the next board session in March along with any resolution that meeting might approve.

The text also expresses “serious concerns about Iran’s nuclear program” and mentions “the absence of confidence that Iran’s nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes.”

Singled out as a major concern were documents in Iran’s possession that an IAEA report on Tuesday said served no other purpose than to make an atomic bomb.

In the brief report prepared for the board session, the agency said bluntly that the 15-page document showing how to cast fissile uranium into metal was “related to the fabrication of nuclear weapon components.”

The document was given to Iran by members of the nuclear black market network, the IAEA said. Iran has claimed it did not ask for the document but was given it anyway as part of other black market purchases.

The same network provided Libya with drawings of a crude nuclear bomb which that country handed over to the IAEA as part of its 2003 decision to scrap its atomic weapons program.