Rice sees more room for diplomacy on Iran nuclear row

DAVOS, Switzerland (AFP) - Iran poses a "significant danger" over its nuclear programme but there is still time for international diplomacy to work, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

Rice said in comments via video link to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that the international community should "react strongly" and haul Tehran before the UN Security Council for action.

"Now when we're in the Security Council there will be many options available to the Security Council, but we believe that that is only the start of a new phase of diplomacy," she said.

"A certain set of negotiations will have failed, but ... we will still have diplomatic means to try and get Iran to return to more sensible policies."

The United States and European Union want the Iran dossier referred to the world executive via the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is due to meet on February 2 to discuss the matter.

The West fears that Iran's nuclear programme, which Tehran insists is for peaceful civilian purposes, could be a cover for developing nuclear weapons.

"Iran is a significant danger and challenge, I think, to the international community," Rice said, not just because of its nuclear programme but also as "the most important state sponsor of terrorism."

"Of course we are deeply concerned, gravely concerned about Iran's obvious desire to be outside of the international consensus which says that Iran cannot have either a nuclear weapon or the technologies that might lead them to be able to gain a nuclear weapon," she went on.

"It is our very strong view that it is time to refer Iran to the Security Council."