British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday that Britain would seek international consensus to refer Iran to the United Nations (UN) Security Council over Tehran's move to restart nuclear fuel research.

Speaking during his weekly question time in the House of Commons, Blair said "the first thing to do is to secure agreement for a reference to the Security Council, that is indeed what the allies jointly decide as I think seems likely."

"Then ... we have to decide what measures to take and we obviously don't rule out any measures at all," Blair said at his first question time of the year in Parliament.

"It's important Iran recognizes how seriously the international community treats it," he said.

Blair pointed out that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had previously suggested a referral to the UN, but suspended doing so because Iran had agreed to halt its nuclear activities.

"This is why it is extremely important therefore we take a fresh look at this now," he added.

The prime minister said Iran's decision to resume nuclear fuel research was "very serious indeed."

"I don't think there is any point in people or us hiding our deep dismay about what Iran has decided to do," he said.

On Tuesday, Britain condemned Iran's decision to restart research into nuclear fuel, saying it would "seriously jeopardize" negotiations with the European Union.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw also said Iran's move amounted to yet another breach of IAEA Board resolutions, as well as the Paris Agreement that Iran signed with Britain, France and Germany in November 2004.

In the pact Iran agreed to freeze temporarily all uranium enrichment, reprocessing and conversion-related activities.

"There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful and it wanted to resolve long-standing international concerns," said Straw in a statement.

On Thursday, Foreign Ministers from Britain, France and Germany will meet in Berlin to discuss what steps to take.

For more than two years, Britain, France and Germany, with support from the IAEA Board, have been engaged in lengthy negotiations with Tehran aimed at obtaining guarantees that Iran is not seeking to develop nuclear weapons using its nuclear energy program as a cover.

The United States accuses Iran of running a covert nuclear arms program. Iran, however, says its nuclear work is designed merely to meet its energy needs and insists on the right to develop a full nuclear fuel cycle.

Source: Xinhua