Iran has two weeks to respond seriously to an international offer to halt its sensitive nuclear work or face further ''punitive measures'', US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned.
Flying to the Middle East yesterday, Dr Rice sought to tighten the screws on the Iranian Government after taking the unprecedented step of sending a top US diplomat to meet Iran's chief negotiator, Saeed Jalili, at international talks in Geneva.
Until Saturday the US had refused to sit with Iran at such talks until Iran stopped enriching uranium, but the US changed course to show it was ''going the extra mile'' for a diplomatic solution.
Dr Rice told reporters on her flight to Abu Dhabi, capital of the United Arab Emirates, that the meeting had sent a ''very strong message to the Iranians that they can't go and stall ... and that they have to make a decision.
''It clarifies Iran's choices and we will see what Iran does in two weeks. But I think the diplomatic process now has a kind of new energy in it.''
Iran's Dr Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana hailed their talks as ''constructive'' but Mr Solana lamented that Iran had not given a final response to proposed incentives to abandon its nuclear program. For his part, Dr Jalili maintained that the issue of halting enrichment had not even been raised in the talks.
The official Iranian news agency, IRNA, quoted him as saying, ''The question of suspending enrichment was not discussed in Geneva: there were discussions on the different parties' approach to the continuation of the negotiations, their setting and their calendar.''
The six world powers have offered to start preliminary talks during which Iran would agreed to add no more uranium-enriching centrifuges and in return face no more sanctions what is being called the ''freeze-for-freeze'' approach.
Dr Rice said such diplomacy offered the possibility of both negotiations and the ''punitive measures''. ''And we are in the strongest possible position to demonstrate that if Iran doesn't act, then it's time to go back to that track.'' She was referring to the New York policy track, whereby the UN Security Council has so far imposed three rounds of sanctions on Iran.
The top US diplomat did not expect any ''imminent action'', as August is a slow summer month at the Security Council, but expected work to begin soon afterwards on drafting another round of ''punitive measures''.
The showdown has stirred fears of Israeli or even US military strikes against Iran, as US President George W.Bush has confirmed Washington would keep all options on the table. It has also sent oil prices skyrocketing.
Dr Rice who was heading to the UAE to discuss Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and the Middle East peace process said the US would also look at other unilateral steps it could take to squeeze Iran's financial institutions.
She said Under Secretary of State William Burns's presence in Geneva strengthened diplomacy involving the five permanent UN Security Council members the US, Russia, China, France and Britain along with Germany.
The US has in the past met resistance for tougher sanctions from Russia and China, which have strong economic ties with Iran.
Dr Rice also said Mr Burns's presence appeared to be ''a bit surprising to the Iranians'', who were robbed of a chance to repeat past claims that the US's absence from such talks showed Washington was not interested in a diplomatic solution.
Dr Rice would not elaborate on prospects for setting up a US diplomatic presence in Tehran for the first time since US-Iranian ties were severed after the Islamic revolution in 1979 and the seizure of US hostages.
But she said any effort to set up an ''interests section'' would focus on improving US contacts with the Iranian people.
''We have an interests section in Cuba, so I wouldn't read thawing of relations into anything,'' Dr Rice said.
Dr Rice said Mr Burns would not return to talks with the Iranians in two weeks.
''We've done enough to demonstrate that the United States is serious and to assure our partners that we're serious and to assure the Iranians that we're serious,'' she said. AFP