Moves on for compromise on Iran resolution

The 15-member UN Security Council is bargaining over a Franco-British draft resolution that would legally require Iran to freeze all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.

Iran has refused to comply with a previous Council injunction to do this as it says its nuclear work is a peaceful effort to generate electricity.

But the United States charges Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons and seeks a tough Council resolution that could open the door to sanctions, and even military actions.

Iranian allies Russia and China fear such an escalation of the crisis, particularly from the draft resolution's reference to Chapter Seven of the UN charter, which concerns handling threats to international peace and security and can authorise economic sanctions or military attack as a last resort.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak said Saturday the Franco-British draft, which is backed by the United States and Germany, "requires major changes".

A senior European diplomat said the West was working to see if there could be "something that has one or two articles from Chapter 7, enough so that the resolution still has a legally binding character."