With moves for heavier sanctions held up at the UN Security Council until November, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has urged his EU partners to take independent measures to pressure Iran to end its "nuclear defiance."

"It is vital that the EU today show its determination and that it set an example once again by taking the initiative of firm new measures, to step up the pressure on Iran," he wrote to the 27-nation bloc's foreign ministers.

Portugal, which holds the EU's rotating presidency until the end of the year, plans "to give Mr Kouchner a moment to present his initiative" at the next meeting of EU foreign ministers, in Luxembourg on October 15.

"That will set off a debate. We'll see what the reaction of the other ministers will be," said presidency spokesman Manuel Carvalho.

Portugal's careful approach can be explained, in part, by the reservations about such action from countries like Germany and Italy, which both have important economic interests in Iran.

Berlin's stance is key.

Germany, along with permanent UN Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, has led efforts to convince Iran to suspend uranium enrichment in exchange for political and economic incentives.

While Britain said Thursday that it "wholeheartedly" backed Kouchner's call, Germany, which covets a seat of its own on any revamped security council, is less enthusiastic.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, a conservative, must manage a complicated coalition government and Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Socialist who runs Germany's foreign office, has always pushed for the six to act together.

Kouchner was scheduled to meet Steinmeier late Wednesday to explain France's position but no word had yet filtered out of those talks.

Italy, meanwhile, has not been among the so-called EU-3 trying to tempt the Islamic republic away from a nuclear armed future but it does now intend to play a role, especially as it is Iran's top trade partner in Europe.

"Italy has never ruled out possible European sanctions, but we should also remember that we would have a bigger price to pay than those who shout the loudest," Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said, according to ANSA news agency.

Other countries, like Austria and Spain, are overtly hostile to any European action outside the framework of the United Nations.

"We should ... not take a second step before we've taken the first," Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said at the United Nations last week, according to her spokesman.

"International pressure is most effective when it's based on broad international support. Only the UN Security Council can provide that support," she said.

Spain believes Iran "must make gestures" but "we think that the framework for a solution, including sanctions, should be global, in this case the UN," a foreign ministry official in Madrid said.

For Europeans who prefer a multilateral approach, Kouchner's initiative could be seen to work against the UN's decision to wait until mid-November for two reports on Iran's cooperation on its nuclear programme.

The head of the UN's nuclear watchdog must draw up one report on Iran's nuclear programme, which many in the West fear may be used to covertly develop an atomic bomb.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will compile the other on the chances that Tehran will suspend uranium enrichment, part of the process of generating electricity but which can, at highly refined levels, be used to build a bomb.

Before doing so, Solana said Wednesday, he wanted to hold "several meetings" with Iran's top nuclear negotiator.

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