New urgency to curb Iran, says US official

Moscow: Russia on Wednesday said it wanted to refrain from taking action before a UN deadline set for Tehran to halt uranium enrichment expired, but a top US official believed other countries were inching towards action.

"What I heard in the room last night was not agreement on the specifics but to the general notion that Iran has to feel isolation and that there is a cost to what they are doing," US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said.

"Now we need to go beyond that and agree on the specifics of what measures we need to put that into operation," he said.

He said Iran's shock announcement last week that it had enriched uranium to a low level and planned to produce it on an industrial scale had focused the minds of the international community.

"What is new is a greater sense of urgency given what the Iranians did last week ... Nearly every country is considering some sort of sanctions and that is a new development. We heard last night and again today that all of those that spoke are looking at sanctions," Burns said.

In a surprise development, an Iranian delegation appeared later in the day in Moscow for talks with officials from the so-called EU3 Britain, France and Germany although one European official said he did not expect a "breakthrough".

The UN Security Council on March 29 gave Iran a month to halt enrichment and answer questions from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on its nuclear programme.

Russia and China, which both have veto power in the council, say they are not convinced sanctions would work. US officials had hoped to use the talks to persuade them to take a tougher line on Iran, which it suspects of seeking nuclear weapons.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said some countries, including Russia, wanted to wait until the UN nuclear watchdog reports on Iranian compliance on April 28 before acting.

"We are convinced of the need to wait for the IAEA report due at the end of the month," Lavrov said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manoucher Mottaki told state radio that officials from the Foreign Ministry and the Supreme National Security Council would "discuss possible solutions which could pave the way to reach a comprehensive understanding based on a recognition of Iran's right to nuclear technology".