Blair: No plan to attack Iran, only sensible solution is diplomacy

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday he did not know of any plans for an attack on Iran over its nuclear program but refused to rule it out completely.

A diplomatic solution to the standoff was the only one "anyone can think of" that was viable and sensible, Blair said in a BBC radio interview.

But pressed repeatedly on whether an attack was inconceivable, Blair declined to say so.

"You can't absolutely predict every set of circumstances that comes about, but sitting here now and talking to you I can tell you that Iran is not Iraq," he said.

"There is, as far as I know, no planning going on to make an attack on Iran and people are pursuing a diplomatic and political solution for a very good reason ... that it is the only solution that anyone can think of as viable and sensible," he said.

Blair said he could not think that it would be "right" to take military action against Iran.

"The question people should be asking me is: What do you do if they get a nuclear weapon? It's a very hard question. Which is why we had better make sure that this political and diplomatic track works," he said.

Rice to meet with EU, Russian officials over stricter Iran sanctions

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice planned to confer Thursday with European diplomats ahead of a likely push for new sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

Rice scheduled a strategy meeting Thursday with European Union and Russian diplomats as a UN deadline loomed for Iran to stop enriching uranium.

"The best course would be for Iran to suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities so that we can return to negotiations," Rice told reporters Tuesday.

"That is the entire purpose of having the pressure on the Iranian regime, so that the Iranian regime can make better choices about how to engage the international community," she said.

Rice said last week that the United States probably would press for another UN resolution condemning Iran for continuing to defy the demand to stop enriching uranium, and to seek additional penalties against Tehran.

The UN nuclear watchdog on Wednesday put finishing touches on a report expected to confirm that Iran was continuing uranium enrichment activities.

Such a finding would be a step toward additional sanctions, but it was not clear whether UN Security Council members Russia and China would go along.

The Security Council set a 60-day deadline on December 23 for Iran to freeze its enrichment activities and said continued Iranian defiance past that ultimatum, which ran out Wednesday, could lead to stronger punishment.

The Security Council is demanding an immediate and unconditional stop to uranium enrichment, after which European-led negotiations over an economic reward package might begin. Iran has long insisted it will not stop its nuclear activities as a condition for negotiations to start.

Both Rice and her German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, expressed hope after a meeting Wednesday that a compromise might still be reached with Iran.

They refused to comment on what action Tehran might face for defying the latest UN deadline.

Steinmeier said he had made clear to Iran that rather than ambiguous public statements, the West needed real, reliable signals of accommodation that actually allow us to find the way back to the negotiating table.

"I am not giving up hope of succeeding in this, but I say again and again that decisions are needed in Tehran itself," he told reporters.

In Washington, a top U.S. State Department official said Iran was in a diplomatic pincer movement that could force it to resume negotiations.

U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said only a handful of countries were backing Iran in its defiance of the Security Council. Burns said Iran was beginning to feel economic pressures as well, citing in particular a sharp decline recently in export credits from Europe.

Burns spoke Wednesday night to a meeting of the Atlantic Council, which advocates close ties between the United States and Europe.

Top Iranian officials showed no signs of compromise this week.

"The enemy is making a big mistake if it thinks it can thwart the will of the Iranian nation to achieve the peaceful use of nuclear technology," Iranian state TV's Web site quoted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying Wednesday.

Enriched to a low level, uranium is used to produce nuclear fuel but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building an atomic bomb.