Clash on Iran mars Powell's Brussels visit

US Secretary of State Colin Powell and the European Union clashed yesterday over how to handle Iran's nuclear programme, taking the shine off what was billed as a post-Iraq war fence-mending visit to Brussels.

After what he called a "very candid discussion" with EU foreign ministers, Powell said a draft resolution on Iran proposed by the bloc's three major powers was not tough enough on Tehran's non-compliance with nuclear treaty obligations.

Along with tension over steel trade and European prisoners held at the US Guantanamo Bay jail in Cuba, the divide over how to deal with Iran marred determined efforts by both sides to put months of bitter wrangling over Iraq behind them.

Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini voiced the EU's satisfaction that Washington had agreed to quicken the return of sovereignty to Iraq, something many of the bloc's 15 nations had demanded since the end of the US-led war.

But differences came to the fore over Iran, two days before the UN nuclear watchdog's board is due to debate a report on that country's atomic programme.

Powell said he was pleased Iran now seemed to be moving in the right direction in cooperating with the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).