Iran has threatened to press ahead with industrial-scale uranium enrichment if its nuclear work is referred to the UN Security Council.
Nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said Iran would "pursue its own path" if the US and its allies "want to use force".
He was speaking a day before the UN nuclear watchdog meets in Vienna.
Western powers believe Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons, for which enrichment is a key process, but Tehran says its plans are for civilian energy.
Support rallies
Mr Larijani told a news conference in Tehran: "If Iran's nuclear dossier is referred to the UN Security Council, [large-scale] uranium enrichment will be resumed.
"If [the US and its allies] want to use force, we will pursue our own path."
Mr Larijani added: "Going to the Security Council will certainly not make Iran go back on research and development."
Mr Larijani said Iran had no interest in using oil prices as a weapon against the West but warned that if action was taken against Tehran, it would affect international oil prices anyway.
The UN watchdog - the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) - is on Monday expected to approve that the Security Council should consider action against Iran.
The IAEA's board of governors will study a report in which chief inspector Mohammed ElBaradei has said questions remain over Iran's nuclear programme.
Iranian media on Sunday reported small-scale protests in support of the national nuclear programme in several cities, including Tehran, Shiraz, Yazd and Ahvaz.
Iran announced in January that it was resuming uranium enrichment research, ending a two-year-old suspension it had agreed to with the UK, France and Germany.
The announcement prompted the IAEA's 35-nation board to report Iran to the Security Council on 4 February.
(BBC)
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