EU3 launch move to refer Iran to Security Council

LONDON (Reuters) - European powers on Monday began drafting a resolution to have Iran referred to the U.N. Security Council next month over its contentious nuclear work, diplomats said, after Russia and the West neared agreement on strategy.

Britain's Foreign Office said Britain, Germany and France would call for an emergency meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation board of governors in Vienna on February 2-3. A vote on sending Iran to the Security Council could be held then.

Iran's resumption of research that could advance a quest for civilian atomic energy or bombs has sparked a flurry of Western diplomacy in pursuit of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) referral to the Council, which could impose sanctions.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said he hoped the IAEA did refer Iran to the Council.

"The U.S. remains convinced that Iran is a threat to the international community and it should immediately cease all activity related to its enrichment program," he told Reuters after attending a London meeting on Monday of permanent Council members Britain, France, Russia, China and the United States, along with Germany.

"We remain very seriously concerned by the Iranian actions in recent weeks," he said.

After Russia said it was "very close" to Western views on Iran, which favor diplomatic action to curb its atomic project, Germany, France and Britain began drafting a referral resolution to submit to the IAEA board, EU diplomats said.

"It's short. It calls for (IAEA director-general Mohamed) ElBaradei to report Iran to the Security Council," one diplomat said, asking for anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity.

MOSCOW AND BEIJING

Moscow, with a $1 billion stake building Iran's first atomic reactor, and Beijing, reliant on Iranian oil imports, have so far thwarted such a step by the IAEA board of governors.

But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Monday he was confident China and Russia would back the EU in sending the issue to the Security Council.

President Vladimir Putin signaled a change when he said after talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Moscow: "As for Russia, and Germany and our European partners and the United States, we have very close positions on the Iranian problem."

It was the clearest hint yet that Moscow, which as Iran's main energy partner wields the greatest potential foreign leverage over Tehran, was losing patience with the Islamic republic since it resumed nuclear fuel research last week.

However, Putin also warned the crisis should be solved "without abrupt, erroneous steps" -- a possible nod to concerns of some that a rapid push toward U.N. sanctions could backfire. "We must move very carefully in this area," he said.

There was no immediate comment from China. Beijing said last week that resorting to the Security Council might "complicate the issue," citing Iran's threat to hit back by halting snap U.N. inspections of its atomic plants.

Some analysts have said China could eventually relent -- at least abstaining from a vote -- if Russian opposition ended.

Diplomats said the resolution drafting was at an early stage and the West, keen on broad unanimity for referral, would also sound out developing states on the IAEA board like South Africa, Libya and Cuba seen up to now as likely to vote "No."

OPEC giant Iran, the world's fourth-largest exporter of crude oil, has warned that any attempt to isolate it could drive up world energy prices, damaging industrialized economies.

Russia and China are veto-wielding permanent members of the Council, along with the United States, Britain and France, and all five have nuclear arsenals.

Diplomats with the EU trio of Germany, France and Britain that scrapped a moribund dialogue with Iran last week said Russia seemed to be edging into line with Western views but that China still looked more difficult to win over.

They said China's resistance would be harder to overcome, although Beijing's decision to join other permanent Council members in formally protesting against Iran's move showed that the Chinese shared Western concerns.

Iran says it seeks atomic energy only to power its economy -- the IAEA has unearthed no proof to the contrary -- within its rights as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

But Tehran's concealment of nuclear activities for almost 20 years until it was exposed by dissident exiles in 2002, a spotty record of cooperation with the IAEA since, and calls for wiping out Israel have fired Western resolve to rein in the Iranians.

ElBaradei told Newsweek magazine he could not exclude Iran had a secret nuclear arms project in parallel with civilian fuel research and development.

Western officials say Iran crossed a "red line" last week by stripping IAEA seals from equipment that purifies uranium, used for nuclear fuel, or if highly enriched, for bombs.

But Tehran has said only direct dialogue, not threats of Security Council referral, can defuse the dispute with the West.

(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in Berlin, Meg Clothier in Moscow, Andrew Gray in London, Paul Hughes and Pariza Hafezi in Tehran and Francois Murphy in Vienna)