BERLIN (Reuters) -- Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki has told a German magazine that the United States has too many problems in Iraq to become involved in armed conflict with Iran.

The United States ""is not in a position to get into a new military conflict,"" Mottaki was quoted as saying in an excerpt of an interview to be published in Focus magazine. ""170,000 American soldiers can guarantee neither their own safety nor the security of Iraq,"" he said. The United States claims Iran's nuclear fuel enrichment program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons. Iran insists it is purely for peaceful power generation. The United Nations has imposed sanctions on Iran for failing to stop enrichment, but Mottaki reiterated that Iran had no intention of curtailing the program. Mottaki has dismissed the UN sanctions already imposed and said that tougher penalties would not change Iran's mind