U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Sunday the U.S. was prepared to engage with Iran without preconditions, but added it needed to see the country behave like "a normal nation."

"We are prepared to engage in a conversation with no preconditions. We are ready to sit down with them," Pompeo told a joint news conference in Switzerland with Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis, adding that "the American effort to fundamentally reverse the malign activity of this Islamic Republic, this revolutionary force, is going to continue."

Pompeo's remarks came after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's suggestion on Saturday that Iran may be willing to hold talks if the U.S. showed it respect, but said Tehran will not be "bullied" into negotiations.

Iran and the U.S. have been drawn into a starker confrontation in the past month, a year after Washington pulled out of a deal between Iran and global powers to curb Tehran's nuclear program in return for lifting international sanctions.

Washington re-imposed sanctions last year and ratcheted them up in May, ordering all countries to halt imports of Iranian oil. In recent weeks it has also hinted at military confrontation, saying it was sending extra forces to the Middle East to respond to an Iranian threat.

U.S. President Donald Trump said the 2015 nuclear deal was not strong enough and he wanted to force Iran to negotiate a new agreement. Some U.S. officials have spoken of the possibility of new talks.

Trump said on Monday: "It (Iran) has a chance to be a great country with the same leadership... We aren't looking for regime change, I just want to make that clear."

Fars news agency quoted Rouhani as saying, "We are for logic and talks if (the other side) sits respectfully at the negotiating table and follows international regulations, not if it issues an order to negotiate."

Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Wednesday that Iran would not negotiate with Washington. Rouhani had previously signaled talks might be possible if sanctions were lifted.

In Saturday's speech to a group of Iranian athletes, Rouhani noted Trump's recent remarks and suggested they were a climb-down from statements last year that encouraged regime change in Iran.

"The same enemy which declared its aim last year to destroy the Islamic Republic of Iran today explicitly states that it does not want to do anything to (our) system," Rouhani said. "If we remain hopeful in the war with America, we will win."

(With input from Reuters)

(Cover: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (C) arrives at a closed briefing for House members on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 21, 2019. /VCG Photo)