West turns up heat as Iran moves to expand nuclear plan

Paris: The United States and France on Monday said it was time to impose new sanctions on Iran after Tehran announced plans for a major expansion of its nuclear programme.

Iran said it would soon start producing higher-grade nuclear fuel and add 10 uranium enrichment plants over the next year, raising the stakes in its long-running stand-off with Western powers over its atomic plans.

Iran also said it has told the UN nuclear agency it will start enriching uranium to higher levels, shrugging off international fears that such a move will bring it closer to being able to make nuclear warheads.

Western powers condemned the moves, which Germany said was a sign that Iran is not cooperating with the international community which wants the fuel to be upgraded abroad.

A top Russian lawmaker called Tehran's move "a sure step backward" and said new sanctions should be discussed — a step Moscow has previously opposed.

Serious measures

"The international community should... send Teh-ran a new message about its intention to react with serious measures — to the point of tougher economic sanctions," said Konstantin Kosachev, who heads the foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters he did not believe Iran had the ability to raise the enrichment level of its uranium.

"Therefore, this is real blackmail," he said. "The only thing that we can do, alas, is apply sanctions given that negotiations are not possible."

Speaking at a separate event in Paris, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates also said more pressure had to be applied.

Pressure track

"We must still try and find a peaceful way to resolve this issue. The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track but it will require all of the international community to work together," he said.

Gates said the international community had "offered Iran multiple opportunities to provide reassurance about its intentions with respect to its nuclear programme".

Asked about the possibility of an Israeli strike on Iran over its nuclear programme, Gates said: "Everybody's interest is in seeing this issue resolved without a resort to conflict."

He warned of the "huge danger" of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East if Iran succeeds in building a bomb.

Kouchner said all the major powers apart from China were in favour of a fourth round of UN-backed sanctions.