State Department spokesman Sean McCormack remained upbeat after the European Union backed off its drive to haul Iran before the world body without consensus at a crucial international meeting in Vienna.

"We have no doubt that if Iran continues on the path that it has chosen to follow for these past years, pursuing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program, that they would be reported -- and should be reported -- to the Security Council," McCormack said.

"As for the timing of such a referral, that is going to be a matter for diplomacy. And that's what is working now," he told reporters at the daily State Department briefing.

Britain, France and Germany, backed by the United States, had pressed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna to refer Iran to the UN Security Council for suspected efforts to develop a nuclear bomb.

But faced with stiff Russian opposition, the EU-3 introduced a new draft resolution Thursday that would hold Iran in violation of international treaty obligations but omit an explicit call for UN action.

McCormack reiterated the US position that a majority of the 35-member IAEA board were in favor of bringing in the United Nations after Iran broke an agreement with the Europeans and resumed unranium-enrichment activities.

"But what we want to do, working with the EU-3 and other countries, is to build the broadest possible majority," the spokesman said.

McCormack played down the staunch opposition to a UN referral expressed by Russia, which is building a civilian nuclear power plant near the southwestern Iran city of Bushehr.

"I think that in terms of the tactical, there is a lot of diplomacy that's going on now, including with the Russians," he said.

"But in terms of the strategic objectives, I think everybody is on the same page and everybody shares the same strategic objectives."

Iran denies its nuclear program is anything but peaceful and has been negotiating with the EU-3 on a package of economic and security incentives to keep its weapons ambitions in check.

Tehran had agreed in November to suspend sensitive uranium-conversion work which could be a prelude to making weapons-grade fuel. But it resumed such activities in August after angrily rejecting the latest EU-3 proposals.

related report
Russia Rejects Compromise Text On Iran Nuclear Program
Vienna (AFP) Sep 22 - Russia rejected Thursday a compromise EU draft resolution circulated at the UN atomic watchdog on Iran's nuclear program, saying it is too tough on Tehran, diplomats said.

"It is a plane that does not fly," Russian ambassador Grigory Berdennikov told AFP.

A Western diplomat said that at a meeting with the resolution's drafters Britain, France and Germany the Russians had crossed out clauses that cited Iran for non-compliance with international nuclear safeguards and opened the door to eventual referral to the UN Security Council, even if the Council was not specifically mentioned.

The new draft resolution had been "a tactical gesture to show flexibility. It didn't work," the diplomat said.

Berdennikov huddled with Iranian officials for talks shortly after rejecting the draft but neither side would comment to an AFP reporter about the meeting.

The European Union and the United States are trying to win consensus this week at the 35-nation board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency for a referral, even if that means putting off actually taking Iran to the Security Council until the next meeting of the IAEA board in November.

At stake is getting Iran to halt nuclear fuel work it resumed last month, a move which scuttled talks with the EU and fanned concern in the United States and Europe that Tehran may be secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Russia, China and non-aligned nations back Tehran's right to what it says is a peaceful nuclear program and fear that Security Council action could escalate into calls for trade sanctions that would draw sharp retaliation from oil-rich Iran, diplomats said.

If there is no unanimity for the new draft resolution, the European trio, or EU-3, were ready to demand a vote on a previous draft they had distributed earlier in the week that called for immediate referral to the top UN body, diplomats said.

A second Western diplomat said the Europeans are sure to do this, although other diplomats said the EU-3 were hoping that negotiations could still succeed on the more mild, second draft resolution.

Diplomats agreed the West would win a vote on the first resolution but warned that a lack of consensus would not have a strong impact on Iran and would be a prelude to paralysis at the Security Council, which unlike the IAEA has enforcement powers but where nuclear states Russia and China have vetoes.

A European diplomat said the European trio "are determined to leave the current board meeting with an outcome" one way or another, after two years of negotiations with Iran and more than two years of an IAEA investigation that has failed to resolve crucial questions about Tehran's nuclear work.

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