New Iran sanctions to be presented to UN Security Council

United Nations: Britain and France have formally introduced a resolution for the UN Security Council to consider that calls for a third round of sanctions against Iran over its continuing failure to suspend uranium enrichment.

The United States pushed hardest for the sanctions, but China and Russia, as the remaining permanent members of the 15-nation council, along with Germany, have been in general agreement on them.

The six nations circulated a draft earlier calling for bans on travel and equipment that can be used in civilian and nuclear programmes, more monitoring of Iran's financial institutions and inspection of air and sea cargo heading to or from Iran.

Iran says it will only deal with the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, which found last November that Tehran was generally truthful about aspects of its nuclear history.

However, the new resolution, encourages European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana to continue talks with Iran toward finding "a negotiated solution including relevant proposals by China, France, Germany, the Russian Federation, the United Kingdom and the United States with a view to create necessary conditions for resuming talks" on its nuclear programme.