Washington / AFP
07/15/2005

The United States told Iran Wednesday not to resume enriching uranium, which could feed a nuclear weapon, and also cautioned Tehran to keep its hands out of Iraq 's internal affairs.

The latest US warnings followed an almost daily barrage of charge and counter charge between the two rivals, as both sides size up the situation following the presidential election win of hardline Mahmood Ahmadinejad.

The White House said it would continue to support efforts by the European Union to convince Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

"There needs to be an objective guarantee from Iran to make sure that they are not developing nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian program," said spokesman Scott McClellan.

"That means there needs to be a permanent end to their uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities. We have made that very clear," he said.

Asked whether the resumption of uranium enrichment would end US support for talks led by Britain , France and Germany , he replied: "I'm not going to play 'what-ifs,' but Iran did make a commitment" to freeze such activity.

"They need to abide by that commitment. They also need to abide by their international obligations, which they have violated over the last couple of decades," said the spokesman.

Senior Iranian officials have recently been quoted as saying that Tehran will soon resume uranium enrichment and will reject any proposal from the European Union that does not recognise the Islamic republic's right to do so.

The Islamic republic suspended enrichment in October 2003 and widened the freeze last year. However, it has a track record of covering up its activities and shopping illegally on the international black market.

The United States accuses oil-rich Iran of using a civilian nuclear energy program to cover up activities linked to developing atomic weapons. Tehran has rejected the charge and said it has a right to nuclear power.