Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Saturday (Feb 17) emphasized his country's need to produce nuclear fuel, saying its oil and gas reserves would dry up eventually.

"Oil and gas resources will not last forever," Khamenei's speech was quoted by Iranian Student's News Agency (ISNA) as saying.

"If a country does not consider this fact it will turn to a dependent country for energy in the future," the Iranian supreme leader said.

Describing the nuclear issue as a "future-determining matter" for Iran, Khamenei criticized those who had said that "nuclear energy is not worth what it was currently costing the country."

"The only reason behind the powers' objection towards our peaceful nuclear program is because they want to control the world' s energy future," Khamenei said.

Iran, the world's fourth biggest producer of crude and has the second largest natural gas reserves, says it needs to produce nuclear fuel as a peaceful, alternative energy source.

However, the West has accused Iran of trying to produce nuclear weapons under a civilian cover, a charge denied by Tehran.

Editor: Wing