Iran report leaves war of words in its wake

OMAHA, Neb. -- President Bush, trying to keep pressure on Iran, called on Tehran Wednesday to "come clean" about the scope of its nuclear activities or else face diplomatic isolation.

Two days after a new intelligence report said Iran had halted its nuclear weapons program four years ago, Bush demanded Tehran detail its previous program to develop nuclear weapons "which the Iranian regime has yet to acknowledge."

"The Iranians have a strategic choice to make," he said. "They can come clean with the international community about the scope of their nuclear activities, and fully accept the long-standing offer to suspend their enrichment program and come to the table and negotiate, or they can continue on a path of isolation."

Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the report represented a "declaration of victory" for his country's nuclear program.

"This was a final shot to those who, in the past several years, spread a sense of threat and concern in the world through lies of nuclear weapons," he said before thousands of people during a visit to Ilam province in western Iran, drawing celebratory whistles from the crowd.

And finally, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov indicated the report had undermined Washington's push for a new set of U.N. sanctions against Iran.