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TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s president on Tuesday dismissed a year-end deadline set by the Obama administration and the West for Tehran to accept a U.N.-drafted deal to swap enriched uranium for nuclear fuel. The United States warned Iran to take the deadline seriously.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also accused the U.S. of fabricating a purported Iranian secret document that appears to lay out a plot for developing a critical component of an atomic bomb.

Ahmadinejad’s remarks underscored Tehran‘s defiance in the nuclear standoff — and also sought to send a message that his government has not been weakened by the protest movement sparked by June’s disputed presidential election. He spoke a day after the latest opposition protest by tens of thousands mourning a dissident cleric who died over the weekend.

Late Tuesday, the Web site of state-run television said Ahmadinejad had appointed a new chief of Iran’s prestigious Art Academy, removing opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from the post.

Mousavi, a presidential challenger who alleged voting fraud, had attended Monday’s funeral procession. There was no immediate comment from Mousavi.

President Barack Obama has set a rough deadline of the end of this year for Iran to respond to an offer of dialogue on the nuclear issue. Washington and its allies are warning of new, tougher sanctions on Iran if it doesn’t respond.

The U.N.-proposed deal is the centerpiece of the West’s diplomatic effort. Under the deal, Tehran would ship most of its stockpile of low-enriched uranium abroad to be processed into fuel rods, which would ease the West’s fears that the material could be used to produce a nuclear weapon.

Iran, which denies it seeks to build a bomb, has balked at the deal’s terms.

The international community can give Iran “as many deadlines as they want, we don’t care,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech to thousands of supporters in the southern city of Shiraz.

Ahmadinejad dismissed the threat of sanctions, saying Iran wants talks “under just conditions where there is mutual respect.”

“We told you that we are not worried of sanctions against us, and we are not intimidated,” he said, addressing the West. “If Iran wanted to make a bomb, we would be courageous enough to tell you.”

As the crowd cheered: “We like you, Ahmadinejad,” the Iranian leader lashed out at Washington, vowing Iran will stand up against U.S. attempts to “dominate the Middle East.”

The U.S. responded sternly. “It is a very real deadline for the international community,” said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the international community was “united in its resolve that Iran must either answer the questions that we have about its nuclear aspirations or face additional pressure.”

Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in an interview with the Associated Press and APTN it was “premature” to discuss possible new U.N. sanctions against Iran, but added that the U.S., Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany “are considering a wide range of alternatives.”

In Paris, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the chances of finding a diplomatic solution to the nuclear standoff with Iran were “never very significant” and that in the “worst case,” France will bring up the issue of new sanctions on Tehran.

In a separate interview with ABC News, Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. of forging the document that appears to describe an Iranian work plot for developing a neutron initiator, a key component in detonating a nuclear bomb.

“They are all a fabricated bunch of papers continuously being forged and disseminated by the American government.” He said the accusations that Iran seeks a weapon has “turned into a repetitive and tasteless joke.” The comments were aired Monday night.

The memo was first reported in the British newspaper Times of London. U.S. officials have said it’s unclear whether the document is real.

In his speech Tuesday, Ahmadinejad also shrugged off Iran’s continued political turmoil since the disputed June election. Large street protests have continued despite a fierce government crackdown. In the latest, tens of thousands turned out for the funeral of Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died Sunday, and chanted slogans against the country’s rulers.

Ahmadinejad said the West mistakenly believed that Iran “has been weakened.”

“The people of Iran and the government of Iran are 10 times stronger than last year,” he said. “I want the whole world to know it’s impossible for Iran to allow the United States to dominate the Middle East.”

Crowley, the State Department spokesman, said there was a fissure in Iranian society and the U.S. is concerned about a crackdown on the opposition.

“The government is pushing by the various means that are available to it, including the use of various security forces, to kind of place this genie back in the bottle. And it is increasingly hard for them to do that,” he said.

Iran says its nuclear program is intended only to generate electricity and that it has a right to proceed with uranium enrichment, which the United Nations has demanded it suspend. The process can produce low-enriched uranium used to fuel a nuclear reactor — or higher enriched uranium, which is the basis for building a nuclear warhead.

Under the deal brokered by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency last month, most of Iran’s low-enriched uranium would be shipped abroad, where it would be enriched further to produce fuel rods. The rods would then be returned to Iran for use in a research reactor in Tehran, but it would not be possible to enrich them further to a high enough level to build a bomb.

Iran’s response has been unclear, with officials floating a number of alternative thoughts for a swap — including carrying out the exchange simultaneously or in stages. At times, Tehran has threatened to reject it outright and enrich its own fuel rods, though last week Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tehran was still open to the thought of an exchange.

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Associated Press writers Jenny Barchfield in Paris and Edith M. Lederer at the United Nations contributed to this report.

RIO DE JANEIRO – Brazil’s chief justice on Tuesday ruled in favor of a U.S. man who has pursued a five-year court battle to gain custody of his son. According to the court’s Web site, Chief Justice Gilmar Mendes ruled David Goldman’s 9-year-ancient son must be delivered to him by the boy’s Brazilian relatives, as a federal court ordered last week. A time frame for the handover was not clear.

The ruling place Goldman one step closer to finally being reunited with his son, Sean. The boy was taken by Goldman’s now-deceased ex-wife to her native Brazil in 2004, where he has remained. Goldman has been fighting to get him back from the boy’s stepfather.

Lawyers on both sides have said there was still a chance for the Brazilian family to appeal to Brazil‘s highest appeals court, though the chances of success seemed slight.

Goldman, who lives in Tinton Falls, New Jersey, declined to comment until he learned more details about the 50-page ruling.

U.S. Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey congressman who traveled to Brazil to offer his support, said Goldman was pleased.

“He was elated, a huge smile came to his face, but he said ‘I’m not going to let my guard down until it’s wheels up,” Smith said.

Goldman has seen earlier rulings ordering Sean’s return be blocked, and for days his supporters have expressed worries the Brazilian family might try to flee or hide Sean.

Calls to the Brazilian family’s lawyer were not immediately returned.

Both the U.S. and Brazilian governments argued that the case clearly fell under the Hague Convention, which seeks to ensure that custody decisions are made by the courts in the country where a child originally lived — in this case, the United States.

A lawyer specializing in the Hague Convention said Tuesday’s choice by Mendes was the only right one to make.

“It would be virtually impossible to reconcile international law with a ruling in favor of the Brazilian family,” said Greg Lewen of the Miami-based law firm Fowler White Burnett.

He said that if the Hague Convention were not followed by the chief justice, “the State Department should immediately issue a travel advisory warning parents not to go to Brazil with their children.”

Goldman launched his case in U.S. and Brazilian courts after Sean was brought by his mother in 2004 to her home country, where she then divorced Goldman and remarried. She died last year in childbirth, and the boy has lived with his stepfather since.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, Goldman said he would allow Sean’s Brazilian relatives to visit with his son if he won the case. “I will not do to them what they’ve done to Sean and me,” he said.

The case has affected diplomatic ties between Brazil and the U.S., and has been discussed by President Barack Obama and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Last week, a U.S. senator reacted to the case by blocking renewal of a $2.75 billion trade deal that would remove U.S. tariffs on some Brazilian goods. The hold was lifted after Tuesday’s ruling and the U.S. Senate quickly passed the trade measure.

The U.S. State Department pressed for the boy to be returned. But a Brazilian Supreme Court justice on Thursday stayed the lower court choice ordering Sean to be turned over to his father.

Goldman and Brazil’s attorney general both filed appeals Friday asking the Supreme Court to overturn the justice’s choice to block Sean’s return while the court considers hearing direct testimony from the boy. On Tuesday, Mendes ruled the order no longer valid.

The Brazilian family’s lawyer, Sergio Tostes, had told the AP that he want to see a negotiated settlement, saying he wanted to end the hurt being done to Sean and to U.S.-Brazil relations.

“We’re raising the white flag and saying: ‘Let’s get together, let’s talk. We’re the adults, we have responsibilities, so let’s start to have a constructive conversation,’” Tostes said.

Goldman, but, was never in a mood to negotiate.

“This isn’t about a shared custody — I’m his dad, I’m his only parent,” Goldman said. “This isn’t a custody case — it’s an abduction case.”