The world's leading powers told Iran today it must heed a UN order to curb its nuclear programme or face isolation, but Tehran has refused to budge.
Britain said Iran could eventually face UN sanctions if it failed to suspend uranium enrichment, a process which can produce fuel for nuclear power stations or for bombs.
Iran, which says it wants only civilian nuclear power, rejected a UN Security Council presidential statement adopted on Wednesday that called for an enrichment freeze and a report from the UN nuclear watchdog on Iranian compliance in 30 days.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at their talks in Berlin. Photo: REUTERS/Tobias Schwarz
"Iran must decide between a self-imposed isolation through its continuation of enrichment ...or a return to the negotiating table," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
"We all hope Iran will take the opportunity to opt for a restart of negotiations," he told reporters after a meeting in Berlin of the council's five permanent members and Germany.
Mr Steinmeier added that the international community still aimed to find a diplomatic solution to the stand-off.
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the top world body might pass a legally binding resolution if Iran did not comply with the non-binding presidential statement, opening the way to future measures against the Islamic Republic.
Asked if such action could include sanctions, Mr Straw told reporters: "It could do." But he also said Iran could gain unspecified benefits if it backed down. "If they bring themselves into compliance then all sorts of good things, not bad things, will follow."
Both Mr Steinmeier and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice dodged questions about the possible use of sanctions.
"Now a 30-day period is running and it is Iran's move. Everything else does not belong in the public domain at the present time," the German foreign minister said.
Russia and China firmly oppose any sanctions, let alone force, against Tehran and insisted on removing language in the UN statement that they feared could lead down that path.
Iran said its decision to pursue enrichment was irreversible and suggested the West was manipulating the Security Council.
"We will not, definitely, suspend again the enrichment," Iran's ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Aliasghar Soltaniyeh, said.
Oil climbed further above $66 a barrel towards its $70 record after Iran rejected the UN admonition. The UN statement was the product of three weeks of haggling among the council's five veto-wielding permanent members - Britain, France, China, Russia and the US.
The EU trio has offered to resume talks with Iran on condition that it re-suspend all enrichment-related activities.