Security Council Leaders Draft New Iran Resolution

The world's leading powers have agreed the contents of a new draft resolution against Iran after talks on its nuclear program, the German foreign minister said today.

Diplomats said the resolution, which followed negotiations between the UN security council's five permanent members and Germany in Berlin, would focus on expanding existing sanctions.

"We agreed together today on the contents of such a resolution," Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after meeting his counterparts from the US, France, Britain, Russia and China.

"Germany, France and Great Britain will submit a draft resolution to the security council."

A European diplomat and a US official, both speaking anonymously, said the resolution would moderately expand existing sanctions, but the former said it would not feature new economic sanctions.

The US official referred to travel bans and asset freezes but said the group had agreed not to release the full text of the agreement until it had been distributed to the rest of the security council.

"This is a swift reminder to the Iranians that they are not in compliance," the US official said.

Earlier, the prospects of an agreement had seemed unlikely as the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, admitted the leading powers were struggling to present a united front on further sanctions.

"The political directors have made some progress. I know there are still some gaps to close," she said ahead of the meeting of foreign ministers.

Germany had also played down expectations of an agreement by saying that a deal to strengthen sanctions was not guaranteed.

"I can't promise we will come out of this meeting with an agreement on how to proceed in the UN security council, that we will agree on the text of a resolution, and I can't tell you what new sanctions will look like," Steinmeier told public television station ARD.

Opposition to tougher UN measures came mainly from Russia and China, both of whom have important economic ties to Tehran. The US, backed by Britain and France, led the drive for tougher sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment in defiance of the international community.

But the Bush administration's case suffered a bad blow last month when a US intelligence report concluded that Iran had stopped its nuclear weapons program in 2003.

Earlier this month, Iran told the director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohammed Elbaradei, that it would answer all remaining questions over its nuclear activities in the next few weeks.

European countries may prefer to see whether Iran lives up to its commitment to the nuclear watchdog before moving ahead with a new resolution, European officials said.

Iran's nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, will be in Brussels tomorrow to talk to the European Parliament, but the EU's foreign policy supremo, Javier Solana, said they have no plans to meet as yet.

Ahead of today's meeting, China cautioned that the stand-off, which dates back to 2002, had reached a "critical moment".

"China hopes the international community, including Iran, will make joint efforts for the resumption of talks so the issue can be resolved properly and comprehensively," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesman said in Beijing.

Iran has reiterated that new international sanctions would not stop it from pursuing its "legitimate and legal rights" to a nuclear program.