US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week issued an open appeal to China, Russia and India to support the US drive to have the IAEA bring Iran before the Security Council, which could impose sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Iran claims its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to make electricity but the United States says Iran is secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Rice said seeking UN action against Tehran was a "reasonable option" after the Iranians last month resumed fuel cycle work they had voluntarily suspended in November 2004 as part of negotiations with Britain, France and Germany.

"Iran needs to get a message from the international community that is a unified message, and by this I mean not just the EU-3 and the United States, but also Russia and China and India and others," Rice said.

But Russia, which is building Iran's first nuclear power plant, has said it would not back referral to the Security Council, and some 13 non-aligned nations (NAM) on the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors as well as Brazil also oppose referral, diplomats said.

But a senior diplomat from a non-aligned nation on the board told AFP that "it is still too early. A lot can happen in the next 10 days," before the board meeting a week from Monday.

"The NAM position is tentative, a taking stock as Russia and China oppose referral," the diplomat said, adding that the issue was all the more confusing since Iran was "conciliatory" in talks with the NAM in Vienna last week and since NAM nations have backed down in the past on opposing consensus on the IAEA board.

The NAM countries are concerned about a decisions that would impinge on the rights of countries to pursue peaceful nuclear programs.

The diplomat said Iran was looking for a compromise that would allow it to keep some preliminary fuel cycle activities, along the lines of a South African proposal for it to be allowed to convert uranium ore into the gas that is the feedstock for enriching uranium but for this gas to be sent to another country for the actual making of enriched uranium.

Enriched uranium can be fuel for nuclear power reactors but in highly refined form the explosive core of atom bombs.

In any case, Western states are confident they would win a vote on the IAEA's board, diplomats said.

Diplomacy is now focused on a UN summit in New York from Wednesday to Friday which Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Russian President Vladimir Putin are to attend.

Ahmadinejad and Putin are to meet in New York, but there are apparently no plans for the Iranian president to talk with the leaders of the EU-3 countries.

On August 11, the IAEA called on Iran to halt all nuclear fuel work and return to talks with the EU-3.

The European trio say they are ready to take Iran to the Council but still hope the Islamic Republic will defuse the crisis by ceasing uranium conversion.

Iran, for its part, underscores its right under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to make nuclear fuel.

In Tehran on Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned that referring the issue to the Security Council would have "consequences" but he did not say what they would be.

The EU is ready however to call for referral as a "clear signal of concern" over Tehran's nuclear activities, according to a confidential document given to IAEA diplomats last week and obtained by AFP.

"This is highly official," a senior EU diplomat said about the EU notes, which reflect thinking that would guide the drafting of a resolution on Iran for the IAEA meeting.

The document said the "European side sees reporting Iran to the Security Council as a means of reinforcing authority of IAEA resolutions and the diplomatic process."

European diplomats told AFP they would not at first ask the Council, which unlike the IAEA has enforcement powers, to impose sanctions on Iran, as the goal would be to get Iran to heed the IAEA call.

Among the possibilities, the EU may propose a "phased approach" by which the IAEA board would call on Iran one last time to stop nuclear fuel work. Referral to the Council could come at a later meeting if Iran refuses to heed the call.

The IAEA may set a deadline for an end to the fuel work, according to a diplomat close to the IAEA.