Bush: 'All options' open on Iran

US President George W. Bush said on Wednesday after talks in Meseberg with German Chancellor Angela Merkel that "all options" are on the table for dealing with Iran's suspect nuclear programme.

"We'll give diplomacy a chance to work," Bush said at a joint press conference on his farewell tour of Europe. "All options are on the table and my first choice is to solve this diplomatically."

Merkel for her part said that diplomatic pressure on Tehran "has produced results" and that the "doors remain open for Iran but he (the Iranian president) should also know that new sanctions" will be applied.

Germany, the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China are spearheading efforts to press Iran to halt uranium enrichment that can be used to make the material for a bomb.

The UN Security Council has slapped three sets of sanctions on the Islamic Republic demanding that it end uranium enrichment. Iran insists its nuclear drive is peaceful.