US, France warn Iran over nukes

French President Jacques Chirac welcomes US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday at the Elysee Palace in Paris, before talks that put focus on the Middle East and Iran's nuclear programme. PHOTO: AFP

"We have to have a very strong message that of course there is always the course of negotiation ... but there is also the course of the Security Council," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after talks in Paris.

"It is a course that is available to the international community and it is therefore important that Iran negotiate in good faith," she said.

A spokesman for French President Jacques Chirac said that he and Rice agreed that "the perspective of an Iran in possession of nuclear weapons is unacceptable."

But Chirac said that "it is necessary to continue the way of dialogue started by Germany, Britain and France in close concertation with Russia, in complete openness with the US, and with full respect by Iran of the Paris Accord" of November 2004, the spokesman said.