Pat Dollard | Young Americans

ROME - The British government will seek further sanctions against Iran over its atomic program, the prime minister said Tuesday, as Iran’s new nuclear negotiator prepared for his first meeting with the European Union’s foreign policy chief.

The Bush administration has led the push for sanctions against Iran, but last month agreed to Russian and Chinese demands to give the country until November to address international concerns.

The United States and some of its allies accuse Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons and have demanded it halt uranium enrichment, a key step in the production of atomic weapons. Tehran denies the claim, saying its program is for peaceful purposes including generating electricity.

“We are absolutely clear that we are ready, and will push for, further sanctions against Iran,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown said Tuesday in London.

“We will work through the United Nations to achieve this. We are prepared also to have tougher European sanctions. We want to make it clear that we do not support the nuclear ambitions of that country.”

Brown sidestepped a question about when military action might be necessary.

“I believe the combination of our willingness to go through the UN process, which we will do, and our ability to take sanctions as a European Union, sends the strongest possible message to Iran,” he said.

Saeed Jalili, a little known diplomat, was appointed his country’s chief nuclear negotiator after Ali Larijani resigned this weekend. The departure of the moderate Larijani was seen as a victory of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that could push the Islamic Republic into an even more defiant position in its standoff with the West.

However, Larijani was set to attend talks in Rome on Tuesday alongside Jalili and the EU’s Javier Solana, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry. The talks were scheduled before Larijani’s replacement.

Before Larijani resigned, an EU official, who requested anonymity because of the confidential nature of the matter, told The Associated Press that the Rome meeting would focus on Tehran’s refusal to heed U.N. Security Council demands for a freeze on uranium enrichment.

On Tuesday, officials in Solana’s office said the discussions aim to push Iran to enter formal negotiations on its nuclear program.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed two sets of sanctions over Iran’s refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

The U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, with E.U. support, agreed last month to delay until November any new U.N. resolution to toughen sanctions, giving Iran more time to cooperate with an investigation into past nuclear activities by the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Larijani was viewed as more moderate compared with Ahmadinejad, and the two often clashed over how to negotiate with the world on the nuclear issue.

Larijani was seen as committed to a diplomatic solution over Iran’s nuclear program, while Ahmadinejad was not seen as favoring talks with the West over the issue.

The president has said his country would not negotiate over its “nuclear rights” and that he believed the nuclear issue was over. However, he also said this month that the government was prepared to answer questions from the IAEA.

It was not clear whether Larijani left his post under pressure, but his departure was interpreted by many in Iran as giving Ahmadinejad a free hand in dictating his views to the less experienced Jalili.

(AP)