The UN nuclear watchdog has declared that Iran failed to meet a 21 February deadline to suspend uranium enrichment, and Washington said major powers would meet next week to draft a new Iran sanctions resolution.
By ignoring the deadline, Tehran reaffirmed its rejection of a mid-2006 offer by six world powers of talks on trade benefits provided it halted enrichment, a process that can yield nuclear power plant fuel or bombs.
The International Atomic Energy Agency said in a report Iran had installed two cascades, or networks, of 164 centrifuges in its underground Natanz enrichment plant with another two cascades close to completion.
The US under-Secretary of State, Nicholas Burns, has said the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany will meet in London on Monday to begin drafting a second sanctions resolution on Iran.
'We expect to see Iran repudiated again by the Security Council for its decision to defy UN demands that it suspend enrichment of uranium,' Burns said during an appearance at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace think-tank.
Iran has offered to guarantee that it is not pursuing nuclear weapons, but has refused to shelve its programme as a precondition for talks with the US, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.
Speaking yesterday, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said a diplomatic solution to the standoff was the only option currently being considered but declined to say whether an attack on Iran was inconceivable.
