China, Russia Urge More Iran Talks as France Seeks Sanctions

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China, Russia Urge More Iran Talks as France Seeks Sanctions
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By Bill Varner

March 4 (Bloomberg) -- China and Russia said negotiations with Iran remain the best way to resolve the dispute over the purpose of its nuclear program, after a French envoy said the time has come to adopt tougher United Nations sanctions.

"There is still room for further diplomatic maneuvers," Chinese Deputy Ambassador Liu Zhenmin told a Security Council meeting on Iran's compliance with the previous three sets of sanctions. "The door to contact and dialogue has not closed."

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, whose government has said it is open to supporting new penalties, said there is "still a horizon" for negotiations aimed at an agreement to defuse tensions by enriching uranium for a research reactor outside Iran.

"Time is up," French envoy Nicolas de Riviere said. "We cannot let ourselves be put off. We have no other choice than to seek the adoption in coming weeks of new Security Council measures."

France, Britain, Germany and the U.S. have given China and Russia a proposal for new sanctions aimed at Iran's banking, shipping and insurance industries, and at the Revolutionary Guards Corps that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said has largely taken control of the nation.

"In light of Iran's continued non-compliance with its obligations, this Security Council must consider further measures to hold the government of Iran accountable," U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said.

Clinton said yesterday during a trip to Brazil that the U.S. believes the Iranian government will negotiate only after a new package of sanctions is imposed on it.

Iran denies that its nuclear work is intended to produce an atomic weapon.