Illinois Senator Barack Obama, a leading Democratic candidate for U.S. president, has joined the ranks of legislators who are actively working to halt Iran's nuclear program.

"Iran continues to be a major threat," he told Haaretz yesterday in an exclusive interview, "to both the U.S. and some of our allies".

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Obama calls for an urgent escalation of economic pressure on Iran, and backed this up yesterday by announcing his Iran Sanctions Enabling Act. If the bill is passed, it will make it easier for investors to know which companies are economically involved with Iran and to act accordingly.

According to the latest polls, Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton of New York are neck and neck in the race for the Democratic nomination.

Obama still supports talks with Tehran but he promises not to relent on stopping the Iranian enrichment program. "It's important to have low-level talks" with Iran even if the enrichment program is continuing, he said, but high-level talks "will not be appropriate without some sense of progress" on enrichment.

The senator called the Bush administration's talks with Iran over the issue of Iraq a "step in the right direction" that will "establish a pattern of dialogue" with Iran, and criticized the administration for not talking with Iran in the past few years. "We need to check" whether there are Iranian leaders with "a more sensible attitude" than the one expressed by their president, he said.

Obama says the U.S. should give Iran a "clear roadmap for improved relations" if it agrees to abandon its military nuclear program. As expected, he is reluctant to discuss any measures other than diplomatic and economic ones, although he sticks to Washington's "no options are off the table" formula.

While disdaining the more hawkish Republican approach to the military option against Iran, he also takes care to distance himself from the far left of his own party.

This was clear during last week's candidates' debate, where Dennis Kucinich attacked Obama for saying that all options are on the table. "It's important for people to reflect on the real meaning of that, that you're setting the stage for another war," Kucinich claimed.

Obama countered: "I think it would be a profound mistake for us to initiate a war with Iran. But have no doubt, Iran possessing nuclear weapons will be a major threat to us that is a profound security threat for America and one that we have to take seriously."

Obama's Iran Sanctions Enabling Act would require the federal government to publish a list of companies, to be updated every six months, with investments exceeding $20 million in Iran's energy sector. A similar House bill is sponsored by Reps. Barney Frank and Tom Lantos, with one crucial difference: Obama's bill cannot be rescinded until the Iranian government President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's calls for the destruction of Israel.

The law would provide investors with critical knowledge and authorize local governments to divest pension funds or other funds from companies on the list. It would also protect fund managers from lawsuits filed by disgruntled investors.

These measures were designed to meet possible challenges to decisions both by legislators and managers. A couple of years ago the Supreme Court struck down a Massachusetts law penalizing companies doing business in Burma.

"The President's maximum power to persuade rests on his capacity to bargain for the benefits of access to the entire national economy without exception for enclaves fenced off willy-nilly by inconsistent political tactics," the judges wrote. This is one outcome of the divestment movement that the Obama bill is set to prevent. "The states need clarity on this issue, and this bill will give them such clarity," Obama said.

"Clearly", he says, "Iran made progress in its enrichment program" and this only increases a "sense of urgency". Iran will not change its behavior without pressure, Obama says. "I'm not naive" enough to believe that they will, "or optimistic" that they will do anything without more measures taken.