Rice says all options on table with Iran

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that President Bush was ''not going to take any option off the table" to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weaponry, and she rejected the idea of offering security guarantees if Tehran would halt its uranium-enrichment program.

''Iran is a troublemaker in the international system, a central banker of terrorism. Security assurances are not on the table," Rice said on ''Fox News Sunday," one of two appearances on news shows in which she discussed Iran.

For now, she said, the United States will continue to work within the United Nations Security Council to confine Iran's nuclear ambitions to the development of electricity for civilian use.

''The president's not going to take any option off the table -- but we believe that this is something that can be resolved diplomatically," Rice said on NBC's ''Meet the Press."

She added, ''We have many steps yet to take, and Iran . . . can really not stand the kind of international isolation that could be brought upon it if [its leaders] don't find a way to change course."

Highlighting the pressures being applied to Iran, The New York Times reported today that four large European banks have started curbing their activities in Iran after US threats of fines and lost business. According to the Times report, the four banks are UBS and Credit Suisse of Switzerland, ABN Amro of the Netherlands, and HSBC, which is based in London.

Top Treasury and State Department officials have lobbied the banks for months, according to the report, which cited US officials as saying that European allies had been informed of the pressure on the banks and had been asked to join the effort.

US officials have not publicized the pressure on the banks, the Times said, so as not to complicate efforts by European negotiators to formulate a package of incentives to Iran to suspend enrichment.

In another development, the Times said in a separate report today that the Bush administration is pressing a proposal to build a new antimissile site by 2011 in Europe designed to stop attacks by Iran against the United States and its allies on the continent.