Rice: U.N. Move Vs. Iran Not Guaranteed

"I don't underestimate the difficulty of maintaining consensus as we move through this process," Rice said. "What is very clear is that there is strategic consensus about the Iranian problem."

In an agreement struck during an overnight meeting Monday in London, Russia and China joined the U.S., Britain and France in supporting Tehran's referral to the Security Council when the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency is to vote on the matter later this week.

In a compromise, the group agreed that the Security Council should wait until March to take up the Iran case. Russia and China are traditional allies and trading partners of the Islamic regime and have been reluctant to escalate the standoff.

The agreement does not specify what the Security Council should do once it has Iran's case, and it is unclear that Russia or China will support any significant punishment. The council could apply tough economic sanctions, take lesser measures or let the case languish, and any of the five permanent council members can veto any action.

"I expect that there will continue to be tactical differences about timing and there may even be tactical differences about precisely what is required," Rice said as she flew back to the United States on Tuesday for President Bush's State of the Union address. "But that's the hard work of the diplomacy."

The United States and European allies say Iran is hiding ambitions for a nuclear bomb. The United States has long favored bringing Iran to the Security Council for possible punishment. European governments agreed following collapse of diplomatic talks with Iran last year.

"This is the referral that we were seeking," Rice told reporters after her two-day London visit.

While in London, Rice also helped broker a deal on the new Palestinian government. She won international support for conditioning foreign aid on Hamas _ which triumphed in elections last week _ renouncing violence and accepting Israel's right to exist.

Meanwhile, an Iranian exile who opposes the government said in Washington that Iran is building a secret tunnel northeast of Tehran for nuclear research and development.

Alireza Jafarzadeh said the tunnel has double concrete walls and other features designed to keep radiation and sound from getting out. The dissident, who would only identify his sources as Iranian, has made similar accusations before, some of which cannot be independently verified.

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AP Diplomatic Writer Barry Schweid contributed to this report.

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