LONDON - U.S. officials said Friday that Russia and China were keeping the U.N. Security Council from moving quickly enough toward a third set of sanctions over Iran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment.


U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said there was an urgent need to ratchet up pressure over the issue, despite agreement Friday among the five permanent Security Council members, plus Germany, to come up with a new sanctions resolution if November reports by the European Union and the International Atomic Energy Agency do not show improved Iranian cooperation.

"The U.S. believes very strongly there is a need to accelerate the diplomacy, to strengthen the sanctions," Burns told The Associated Press after a meeting in London of the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France and Germany. "We want a diplomatic solution, we do not want to give up on diplomacy, but we need the help of the P5 (permanent Security Council members) countries to do that, particularly the support of Russia and China."

A senior Security Council diplomat at U.N. headquarters in New York said the five permanent members had not yet agreed on sanctions to be included in the new resolution. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because discussions are continuing.

A senior State Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity to describe a closed-door meeting, said the Russian and Chinese delegations had come to the London session "unprepared" to do the work needed to finalize a third sanctions resolution, suggesting that neither Moscow nor Beijing had signed off on even the basic elements that they could accept in a draft text.

Burns said the U.S. believes China has increased trade with Iran in the last six months, sending the wrong signal about the international community's attitude toward the nuclear program.

"We are disappointed by the lack of cooperation by China on a third Security Council resolution," Burns said. "We don't think that China is moving with us."

Deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey said in Washington that Russia and China, "do not seem to have quite the sense of urgency that we and the other members do about moving forward."

Russia and China did not comment. But Moscow in particular has spoken strongly against new sanctions on Iran, particularly unilateral measures imposed recently by Washington against Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps.

"Why worsen the situation by threatening sanctions and bring it to a dead end?" Russian President Vladimir Putin said in Portugal last week. "It's not the best way to resolve the situation by running around like a madman with a razor blade in his hand."

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterparts from the other permanent Security Council members plus Germany agreed last month in New York to consider new sanctions only if new reports show Iran continuing to defy the Security Council and IAEA.

IAEA head Mohamed ElBaradei will report to the U.N. next month on Iran's compliance with its pledge to clear up all unanswered questions on past nuclear activities — most of them clandestine until unveiled four years ago. EU chief negotiator Javier Solana is due to submit a report on whether Iran is ready to heed Security Council demands that it suspend uranium enrichment — which can create both nuclear fuel and material for the fissile core of warheads.

The British Foreign Office said the Security Council members and Germany had agreed Friday to "finalize a text for a third U.N. Security Council Sanctions resolution with the intention of bringing it to a vote in the U.N. Security Council unless the November reports of Dr. Solana and Dr. ElBaradei show a positive outcome of the efforts."

Iran has repeatedly said it will not freeze enrichment and IAEA officials have privately said Tehran is expanding the program.

The IAEA report on how far Iran has gone in fully revealing its nuclear past will likely be more controversial than Solana's, possibly pitting Russia and China against the United States, Britain and France over interpreting whether Tehran has gone far enough.

Even if the world powers ultimately agree on the need for new sanctions, their imposition could be months away, judging by past disputes pitting Moscow and Beijing against their Western negotiating partners about how harsh such punishments should be.

The diplomats who met in London on Friday will hold talks again on Nov. 19 to assess the pending reports, a British Foreign Office spokesman said.

Britain and France have backed the U.S. call for a third round of sanctions if Iran continues to refuse to suspend enrichment.

Iran's former president, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said in Tehran that talks between Iran and the U.N. nuclear watchdog were making progress and he warned the U.S. to avoid resorting to threats.

"The U.S. is making mistakes. Iran is having talks (with the IAEA) and has said it will respond to IAEA questions. They are gradually coming and taking their response. One has to wait, talk and make discussions," he said.

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Associated Press writers George Jahn in Vienna, Austria, Edith Lederer in New York and Matthew Lee in Washington contributed to this report.