West hopes for UN deal on Iran this week

Tue Mar 28, 4:01 PM ET

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - U.N. Security Council powers accelerated talks on Tuesday in an effort to reach a deal on Iran's nuclear programs before their ministers meet this week.

"Ministers are getting together in Berlin on Thursday and I think for their purposes and for ours we are trying to reach agreement here" by then, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said.

Ambassadors from the five veto-holding permanent council members -- the United States, Britain, France Russia, China -- met several times on Tuesday on Iran's nuclear research, which Tehran says is for peaceful purposes but the West believes is a cover for bomb making.

British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said there were "still one or two really difficult issues if we are going to finish by Thursday but most of the rest of the text is coming together."

Bolton said he hoped the full 15-member council could meet on Wednesday but cautioned, "I think we've got a certain momentum and we had it before and didn't necessarily promise that we would reach agreement."

The five have been consulting for nearly three weeks on a statement that Russia, backed by China, believes gives the Security Council too much power and could lead to possible sanctions. They prefer keeping the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. nuclear watchdog, in a leading role.

Moscow last week proposed gutting a large part of the draft that asks Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment efforts, which could produce weapons-grade fuel.

One obstacle, diplomats said, was a provision in the draft statement saying weapons of mass destruction were a threat to international peace and security, which Russia believes could be a prelude to punitive measures.

In an effort to find common ground, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday spoke by telephone again to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the State Department said.

At the same time senior political diplomats in the five capitals spoke to each other throughout the day, diplomats said, both on the U.N. negotiations and the meeting in Berlin, which includes Germany, a key negotiator with Iran.

A senior U.S. State Department official said the Berlin meeting was aimed largely at reassuring Russia and China that sanctions and invading Iran were not the next step.

"We want to tell them that the next step is not sanctions or invasion but rather us all using our collective pressure on Iran," said the senior State Department official, who asked not to named as he was not authorized to talk on the issue.

In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw dismissed military action against Iran.

"As to the possibility of this leading to another Iraq, it won't. I have made clear often enough that I don't regard military action as appropriate or indeed conceivable," he said.

"Nor do I believe there would be any international consensus on that and I think Russia and China are well reassured on that," Straw said."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, returning from a trip to Africa, told reporters, "The issue is really who should deal with the file -- whether it is at the technical level at the IAEA or should it come to the council..."

But he said Iran needed to listen to IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei.

"I think the Iranians will have to heed the advice of Mr. ElBaradei and convince the international community that their intention is only for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, for nuclear energy," Annan said.

(Additional reporting by Madeleine Chambers in London and Sue Pleming in Washington)

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