US says Iran defying world

Threatening new sanctions, the US accused Iran yesterday of defying the world by resuming uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel without resolving suspicions it secretly wants to build atomic bombs. Russia urged Iran to change course to allow a compromise.

Threatening new sanctions, the US accused Iran yesterday of defying the world by resuming uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel without resolving suspicions it secretly wants to build atomic bombs. Russia urged Iran to change course to allow a compromise. It said Iran had to regain international trust before Moscow would back Tehran's declared right to enrich uranium on its own soil.

Iran resumed small-scale feeding of uranium gas into centrifuge enrichment machines on Tuesday, officials close to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said.

"They have now crossed a point where they are in open defiance (of the world community)," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The US, which has long imposed economic sanctions against Iran, was considering further measures, said Ms Rice.

The so-called "extraterritoriality" element of US sanctions against certain states that seeks to prevent non-US firms doing business in Iran is deeply resented internationally.

Ms Rice said US President George W. Bush would ask Congress for $75 million to try to promote democracy in Iran. Critics say this might backfire as many Iranians are hostile to US policies in the Middle East.

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