BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday the United States would continue along a two-track strategy to deal with Iran, pressing for new sanctions and holding talks to convince Tehran to come clean about its nuclear program. But Russia ignored her calls to punish Iran.


U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Brussels Friday

Despite strong support from NATO allies in the wake of a new U.S. intelligence report that concludes Iran actually stopped atomic weapons development in 2003, the top U.S. diplomat was unable to persuade Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the urgency of fresh sanctions.

Rice said her talks with Lavrov were "an extension of other conversations we have had," suggesting the two didn't see eye to eye.

"We are going to continue along the two-track process," Rice said at a news conference, referring to sanctions and diplomacy.

After seeing Rice on the sidelines of the NATO ministerial meeting, Lavrov told reporters: "It fully confirms the information that we have: that there is no military element in their nuclear program. We hope very much that these negotiations with Iran will continue."

Lavrov, who has become the public face of opposition to the U.S. and European strategy on Iran, has maintained Russia has no evidence that Tehran had ever had a secret nuclear weapons program in violation of international treaty obligations.

He did not discuss what Rice had told him.

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His comments were not unexpected given past Russian statements on the issue, but nevertheless dealt a setback to efforts to boost pressure on Iran to suspend uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities with a new U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution.

China, another key participant in the so-called "P5+1" group of world powers now trying to craft such a resolution, is also resisting. The P5+1 includes the five permanent members of the Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany.

Apart from China and Russia, the others have endorsed upping pressure on Iran since the release on Monday of the new U.S. National Intelligence Estimate on Iran, which represented a surprising turnaround in Washington's assessment of Iranian intentions. See what U.S. intelligence experts now say about Iran's nuclear program »

President Bush and Rice have argued that the report actually shows that Iran is susceptible to outside influence on its nuclear program because it finds that Tehran stopped its weaponization attempts four years ago in response to diplomatic pressure.

"It was international pressure that got the Iranians to halt their program," Rice said ahead of her talks with Lavrov. "This suggests that you ought to keep up that international pressure."

Her meetings in Belgium were her first face-to-face exchanges on the matter since the intelligence report became public.

Rice saw Lavrov after having won NATO backing to stay the course on a two-pronged approach to Iran that offers the Islamic regime civilian nuclear cooperation in return for a shutdown of uranium enrichment and reprocessing.

"There was unanimity around the table that there is a clear choice for Iran," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told reporters, noting offers of nuclear cooperation with Iran if it stops enriching and reprocessing uranium.

"Iran can see the outstretched hand from the international community if they are willing to join the drive against proliferation," he said. "But if Iran persists on defying the will of the United Nations Security Council, then there must be further sanctions."

But Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow had never seen evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program, not even one that it had given up on four years ago.

Rice had hoped to convince Lavrov that the new intelligence proved the value of tough diplomacy rather than undermining the drive to press for more sanctions.

"In fact, I would think given the assessment that Iran is indeed susceptible to coordinated international pressure that (this) is the right approach," she said.

The U.S. has been successful in leading two rounds of U.N. Security Council sanctions against Iran and is pushing for a third set of economic sanctions if the country refuses to suspend uranium enrichment.

Waterway concern

Amid the growing pressure on Tehran, Iranian threats to close the vital commercial waterway of the Strait of Hormuz are the greatest concern for naval security in the region, a senior U.S. naval commander said Friday.

Vice Adm. Kevin J. Cosgriff, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, said that while the likelihood of that happening is low, concerns about Iran consume the region -- and his day.

"I wake up thinking about Iran, I go to bed thinking about Iran," Cosgriff told reporters on the eve of a regional conference here where Iran will be a key focus.

He added, "I know of no threat that would cause them to want to close ... the Strait of Hormuz. To me it's coercive, it's intended to intimidate not only the regional nations -- 'look at us we can damage your prosperity'-- but it's intended to intimidate the global market. I just don't think that's responsible behavior."


His comments came a day before a regional security conference that Iranian officials decided at the last minute not to attend. Defense Secretary Robert Gates is expected to make the keynote speech Saturday morning to foreign delegates and other national security officials from Persian Gulf nations and other major powers.

Gates has been meeting with his military commanders in Bahrain, and will participate in the conference, sponsored by the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies. The meeting will focus on security issue in the region, but Iran is likely to dominate much of the discussions