The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Beijing

China on Thursday urged Iran to heed rising international worry about its nuclear ambitions, saying Beijing would seek to work with Europe and the United Nations to defuse the crisis but holding its tongue on any new sanctions.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that his country's nuclear program was irreversible, showing continued defiance in the face of possible new U.N. sanctions. He claimed that Iran now had 3,000 centrifuges to enrich uranium in its Natanz nuclear plant.

Enriched uranium can fuel power plants but also, if refined further, act as material for bombs. Iran says its intentions are peaceful, but Western powers say the Islamic state wants the ability to make nuclear weapons and they have warned Tehran to obey a U.N. call to halt enrichment. As a permament member of the U.N. Security Council, China has the power to pass or veto any fresh sanctions on Tehran, but -- without outright excluding them -- Beijing has repeatedly said that negotiations can still solve the standoff.