Rice says Iran in "open defiance"

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - By resuming uranium enrichment for nuclear fuel, Iran is in "open defiance" of the international community, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday.

Rice told the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the Bush administration has been examining the "full range of sanctions on Iran" and is also considering additional sanctions the United States could impose on its own, although international action would be more effective.

"They have now crossed a point where they are in open defiance" of the international community, she said.

Appearing before lawmakers, Rice gave no details. The United States has had broad sanctions on Iran since that country's 1979 Islamic revolution.

U.N. inspectors saw Iranian scientists feeding uranium gas into a few centrifuge machines in a test run Tuesday, officials associated with the International Atomic Energy Agency said. The action defied Western efforts to have Iran give up enrichment work in exchange for trade and other incentives.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, the International Atomic Energy Agency, recently voted to report Iran's case to the U.N. Security Council, which could impose sanctions.