The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, United Nations

Six world powers handed the U.N. Security Council a toothless draft resolution on Iran's nuclear program on Friday after the United States, facing stiff Russian opposition, failed to secure agreement for new sanctions.

Ambassador Alejandro Wolff of the United States, which like European powers favors more sanctions, said the draft, calling on Iran to comply with previous resolutions demanding it suspend uranium enrichment, was an important "show of unity."

Russia said it was not a time to consider new sanctions.

The proposal comes less than two weeks after the U.N. atomic watchdog reported that Iran was not cooperating enough with its inspectors.

Diplomats said members of the 15-nation council, which has already passed three rounds of travel bans and asset freezes on Iranian individuals and companies, would consult their governments and the resolution could come to a vote early next week.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, whose country has veto power on the Security Council, appeared to shut the door firmly on new sanctions in the near future.

"(We) continue to believe that it is not timely to consider at the ministerial, or at any other level, this proposal of new sanctions," Lavrov told a news conference.

The 10-line draft resolution would call on Iran to "fully comply, without delay" with previous council resolutions, which demand it halt enrichment. It also urges Iran to meet the requirements of the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stressed the need to heal East-West rifts over Russia's invasion of Georgia.

"It's also especially important that the Iranians recognize that the P5 plus 1 process is intact," Rice told Reuters in an interview.

The five permanent Security Council members-Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States-plus Germany are seeking to persuade Iran to halt suspect nuclear activities.

Western countries fear Iran is pursuing an atomic bomb but Tehran says it seeks merely civil nuclear power and that uranium enrichment is its right.

Ministers of the six powers were originally due to meet on Thursday to discuss new sanctions but that was postponed after an increasingly assertive Russia withdrew to protest U.S. criticism of its invasion of Georgia. Western officials feared that would send a signal of disarray to Tehran.

Although the draft resolution has no new penalties, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters that the text "does not rule them out either."