Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Wednesday that international sanctions imposed over his country's nuclear drive had caused "problems", but insisted they had not stopped progress.

Ahmadinejad spoke in Ghana as he wound up a three-nation tour of west Africa that also took him to Benin and Niger, the world's fourth largest producer of uranium.

"If a country is really determined to achieve progress, it will achieve it in spite of colonial pressure or sanctions," he said through an interpreter after signing agreements with Ghana on areas including education and agriculture.

"Yes, the pressures have created problems for us, but they have never been able to bring our progress to a halt."

The United Nations has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear programme, specifically its refusal to stop enriching uranium.

Last week, Iran unveiled a new uranium production facility and two mines, only days after talks with world powers on its nuclear programme again ended in deadlock.

Western powers suspect Tehran of developing a covert programme aimed at having the capacity to produce a nuclear bomb. Iran denies this and says its work is being conducted for energy and medical purposes.

The Ghana leg of Ahmadinejad's trip came after a major earthquake hit southeastern Iran, leaving one person dead, while 40 were killed in neighbouring Pakistan.

Ahmadinejad did not comment in public on the earthquake, though Ghana President John Dramani Mahama expressed his condolences.

Ghana, a country of some 25 million people, is a major producer of gold and cocoa with a nascent oil industry.

Former US officials urge direct diplomacy with Iran
Washington (AFP) April 17, 2013 - Former US officials called on the White House Wednesday to initiate direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program instead of relying solely on sanctions to persuade Tehran to change course.

The 35 prominent ex-diplomats, military officers and other officials from both political parties issued a report urging President Barack Obama to renew diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis and take advantage of economic sanctions that have hit Iran hard.

"The United States should now dedicate as much energy and creativity to negotiating directly with Iran as it has to assembling a broad international coalition to pressure and isolate Iran," said the report from the Iran Project, a non-partisan group.

"Only by taking such a rebalanced approach might the United States achieve its objectives with respect to Iran's nuclear program," it said.

Those who signed the report included former Republican senator Richard Lugar; Michael Hayden, ex-CIA director under president George W. Bush; Ryan Crocker, the former US ambassador to Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Direct talks with Iran would not replace current efforts by major powers to engage Tehran but would complement diplomacy by the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, known collectively as the P5+1, the report said.

The last round of P5+1 talks with Iran in Almaty on April 5-6 failed to produce major progress.

Tightened sanctions have successfully piled pressure on Iran and may have slowed progress in its nuclear program. But the pressure has failed to stop Tehran's controversial uranium enrichment work, the authors said.

The US-led pressure, however, may harden Iran's resistance, contribute to an increase in repression and sow the seeds of "long-term alienation" between Americans and Iranians due to hardships produced by the sanctions, the report said.

"After 30 years of sanctioning and trying to isolate Iran, it seems doubtful that pressure alone will change the decisions of Iran's leaders," it said.

Direct negotiations could offer some relief from sanctions as part of a deal, in return for "verifiable Iranian commitments to greater transparency and agreed limits on Iran's nuclear program," the authors wrote.

Given the Iranian leadership's deeply held belief that Washington favors toppling the regime, any diplomatic progress would require the US government to take "active steps" -- beyond rhetorical gestures -- to convince Tehran it does not seek to overthrow the government, the report said.

The authors were apparently referring to espionage designed to undermine the Tehran regime.

As part of diplomacy on a nuclear deal, Washington and Tehran could also explore possible cooperation on Afghanistan and Iraq, counter drug trafficking efforts and arrange ways to prevent incidents from escalating into armed conflict, it said.