Onus on Iran to prove nuke intentions: Britain

Britain, France and Germany were earlier invited by IAEA to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has said that it is entirely up to Iran to convince the international community that it is not pursuing the development of nuclear weapons.

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Speaking at a security conference in London, where senior diplomats were holding a closed-door meeting on Iran, Straw underlined the danger of weapons of mass destruction falling into the hands of terrorists.

"This is why the international community's stand against Iran's continued non-compliance with its Non-Proliferation Treaty obligations, and successive resolutions of the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency is so important," he said.

"The onus is on Iran to give the international community confidence that its nuclear programme has exclusive peaceful purposes."

Britain, France and Germany were invited last Thursday by the IAEA to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council, a step that could lead to sanctions, after Iran ended its suspension on uranium enrichment research.

Tehran has been insisting that its nuclear intentions are strictly peaceful, but the IAEA declared last September that Iran had failed to live up to its non-proliferation obligations, amid fears that it secretly intends to build atomic weapons.

Senior diplomats from Britain, France, Germany and the United States met with their Chinese and Russian counterparts, hoping to get Beijing and Moscow to back Iran's referral to the Security Council, despite the two nations' closer trade and energy links with the Islamic republic.