Nations agree to sanction Iran on nuclear program

VIENNA -- The five permanent members of the UN Security Council agreed yesterday to start working on UN sanctions against Iran next week but failed to bridge differences on how harsh the penalties should be, diplomats and officials said.

They told The Associated Press that while the United States called for broad sanctions to punish Iran's defiance in pursuing its nuclear program, Russian and Chinese representatives at a top-level Vienna meeting favored less severe measures.

The diplomats and government officials demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing the confidential meeting of the five Security Council countries and Germany -- the six powers whose repeated attempts to entice Iran to enter negotiations finally broke down last week over Tehran's refusal to give up uranium enrichment.

Reflecting the importance of the meeting, Russia, Britain, France, and Germany sent top negotiators directly answerable to their foreign ministers, while the United States and China were represented by their chief representatives to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency. US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns participated via video hookup.

One of the diplomats, who had been briefed on the substance of the meeting, said that while Burns had urged broad sanctions -- such as a total ban on missile and nuclear technology sales -- the Russians and Chinese backed prohibitions of selected items as a first step.

As well, he said, the Chinese and Russian envoys called for renewed negotiations with the Iranians in parallel to working on sanctions to punish Tehran for defying a Security Council demand that it freeze enrichment, a possible pathway to nuclear arms.

Burns ``acknowledged the request" but did not say whether the Americans favored a renewed attempt to engage Iran in negotiations following repeated failures to coax it into agreeing to stop its enrichment activities, he said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran was quoted by state television yesterday as saying ``the day sanctions are imposed on Iran by its enemies would be a day of national celebration for the Iranian nation."