Diplomats fail to reach deal on Iran sanction

But Britain and its Western allies the United States, France and Germany face an uphill struggle in getting Moscow and Beijing even to agree on a UN Security Council statement calling on Iran to comply with demands by the UN nuclear watchdog, the Inter-national Atomic Energy Agency, to suspend uranium enrichment.

US Ambassador John Bolton had expressed hope that the statement could be adopted after council discussions Tuesday afternoon. But US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns told reporters Monday night after a 4 1/2-hour meeting of senior diplomats from the six countries that more time was needed for negotiations.

"We remain convinced that we will achieve a presidential statement," Burns said. "It may take a little bit of time, but it's going to be worth the time because when we do achieve that statement, it will be yet another clear unified message by the international community that Iran has to heed the words of both the IAEA and the UN Security Council."

He reiterated that the six countries oppose Iran seeking a nuclear weapons capability and agree that Tehran is not complying with its international commitments and "is now travelling down a road toward enrichment and reprocessing which will be fundamentally detrimental to the interests of the world of nonproliferation and of peace and security."

But serious differences remain on the best way to get Tehran to halt uranium enrichment.

The senior diplomats from the six countries agreed on a brief statement which said their meeting "built on progress" at a London meeting of their foreign ministers on Jan. 30.

"We share a deep concern that Iran has failed to respond positively to the IAEA resolution of Feb. 4, continues enrichment and has ceased cooperation under the (IAEA) additional protocol" which allows surprise inspections, it said. "We will remain in close touch, particularly to finalize draft Security Council action."

Diplomats said the Russians and Chinese have not budged from their opposition to tough language in the proposed council statement including a demand for a report in 14 days on Iran's compliance with IAEA demands. Moscow and Beijing have said that is too short, with China suggesting 30 to 45 days.