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VIENNA - Russia and China have been blocking tough UN sanctions against Iran for months, the United States said overnight, but major powers will seek to impose them if Iran does not halt nuclear work within two weeks.
Iran's president said he was "not worried at all" about broader economic sanctions it faces over its continued defiance of UN Security Council demands to stop enriching uranium.
The five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany will meet in London on Friday to weigh a third round of sanctions.
In Vienna for consultations with the UN nuclear watchdog director, US undersecretary of state for political affairs Nicholas Burns said Iran was given a two-month grace period after the last UN resolution on March 24 to allow for further talks. But it pressed ahead with enrichment anyway.
"Russia and China have been effectively blocking a third resolution since then," he told reporters. Moscow and Beijing, two of the five veto-holders on the Council and both with big trade ties to Iran, have insisted on more time for diplomacy.
Burns arrived in London later and outlined the meeting's agenda. "We have decided we would put together the elements of the third resolution and ministers can decide the timing.
"We do hope Russia and China will come with a serious demeanour and with the basic attitude that progress has to be made (on a resolution). It's time for Russia and China to re-engage...The credibility of the Council is on the line here."
Western powers agreed in September to delay pursuing harsher sanctions after Iran agreed a deal with the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to answer questions about past secrets of its nuclear work.
The Vienna-based IAEA will issue a report in mid-November.
Burns said a clean bill of health from the IAEA alone would not spare Iran from exposure to stiffer UN penalties.
"Our judgment is that if Iran has not suspended in the next couple of weeks, that's not sufficient, it will remain a refusal to meet Security Council requirements. That will be a highly relevant factor for us," he said.
The West fears Tehran is aiming to build atomic bombs. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful and aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more of its oil and gas.
Iranian officials said on Thursday they had completed four days of talks with IAEA envoys in which "necessary information and answers" were handed over to address doubts about Tehran's development of centrifuge enrichment machines.
Iranian negotiator Javad Vaeedi was quoted by state media as saying both sides voiced "satisfaction about the trend of the talks", leaving it unclear whether the issue was settled.
The IAEA has withheld comment on whether Iran, in a series of secretive negotiations since August, has been resolving the issues of transparency one by one as promised.
Russia said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday about diplomacy "aimed at resolving the Iranian nuclear problem".
The Kremlin, which argues harsher sanctions would push Iran into a dangerous corner, has tried to persuade Tehran with recent top-level visits to heed the international community and give a full account of its nuclear programme.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, said US-allied Gulf Arab states were willing to set up a consortium in a neutral country, such as Switzerland, to provide low-enriched uranium to Iran suitable for energy purposes only.
He said Iran was considering the offer, which in theory would obviate the need for Tehran to master sensitive enrichment know-how itself, easing bomb-proliferation fears.
- REUTERS
