Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Western global powers will not be able to bring Iran to its knees in nuclear talks.

"On the nuclear issue, the US and European colonialist countries gathered and applied their entire efforts to bring the Islamic Republic to its knees but they could not and they will not," Khamenei's website said on Tuesday.

These are the first remarks by Khamenei, who has the final say on all state matters, since Iran and the major global powers agreed on Monday to decide by March 1 what needs to be done and on what kind of schedule. A final agreement is meant to follow in four months.

Khamenei has so far backed the nuclear negotiations.

AP