US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday that the time has come to refer Iran to the UN Security Council, while Iran warned that it would carry out uranium enrichment on an industrial scale if it is referred to the UN.

"It has been our belief, and it is that of the Europeans as well and a number of other states, that the time has come for referral" to the UN Security Council, Rice told the media after her meeting with visiting Italian Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini.

The United States will push for referral of the Iranian nuclear issue to the United Nations at a special meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) early next month, Rice said.

Washington has accused Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, but Tehran says its nuclear programs are for civilian purposes only.

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Monday that he is "deeply concerned" about Iran.

"I'm concerned about a non-transparent society's desire to develop a nuclear weapon. The world cannot be put in a position where we can be blackmailed by a nuclear weapon," Bush said during a speech in Manhattan, Kansas.

Bush said that the next step is to refer Iran to the UN Security Council if it continues to reject diplomatic efforts to resolve its nuclear issue.

Iran, for its part, has threatened to carry out uranium enrichment on an industrial scale if it was hauled up before the UN Security Council.

In an interview with Britain's Financial Times published on Monday, Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said: "If we are referred to the Security Council, the government is obliged by the Majlis (Iran's parliament) to lift all voluntary measures including the Additional Protocol relating to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty."

Iran's former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Monday urged the West, especially the EU, to acknowledge Iran's rights on the peaceful use of nuclear technology, saying it would be beneficial to Europe itself and beyond.

"Acceptance of Iran's legitimate right to produce nuclear energy would be beneficial to Europe and the region," Rafsanjani was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying in the eastern city of Mashhad.

Meanwhile, Iran also called for more dialogue with the European Union to resolve the nuclear standoff.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters that "we have invited our European friends to return to talks."

Leading European Union nations Germany, Britain and France have refused to hold more negotiations with Iran unless it reinstates a moratorium on uranium enrichment.

The three nations representing the EU had been negotiating with Iran in order to persuade it to scrap uranium enrichment, but the talks collapsed after Iran ended a freeze on uranium conversion in August 2005.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei ruled out advancing a wide-ranging report on Iran's nuclear work for an IAEA crisis meeting on Feb. 2.

ElBaradei said that he had given Iran until the March meeting to answer IAEA inquiries into its nuclear project.

He also said his deputy would brief the February meeting about Iran's announced resumption of nuclear fuel research on Jan. 9, which broke a deal with EU negotiators.

ElBaradei said that a fresh IAEA verification mission was due in Iran shortly and that he had only last week sent extra questions to Iran on its nuclear work.

Russia, which is helping Iran build its first nuclear power plant, urged Iran on Monday to adopt a position that would ease the increasing tensions over its nuclear program and encourage resumption of talks over the nuclear dispute.

"I expect to discuss the nuclear problem of Iran and the increasingly tense situation surrounding it. We hope our Iranian friends will take a position that will ease tensions and help encourage a resumption of negotiations," Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

Source: Xinhua