The Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has said that India will not take steps to cut petroleum imports from Iran despite US and European sanctions against Tehran.

During his visit to Chicago on Sunday, he told India, which imports 12 percent of its oil from Teheran, cannot do without Iranian oil.

The United States wants buyers in Asia, Iran's biggest oil market, to cut imports to put further pressure on Tehran to rein in its nuclear ambitions.

Washington suspects Iran of trying to make nuclear weapons, but Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful means.