The United States has been unable to win the international support it wants to report Iran to the U.N. Security Council, despite two years of diplomatic efforts and defiant new actions by Tehran to resume uranium enrichment research, according to European diplomats involved in negotiations.
With the International Atomic Energy Agency scheduled to discuss the crisis between Iran and Western nations Feb. 2, U.S. and European officials are considering delaying a direct confrontation with Tehran in return for greater pressure from Iran's allies to halt its enrichment research, the European diplomats said. Some forms of enriched uranium can be used to make nuclear weapons, though Iran maintains its research will be used only to produce electrical power.

Russia, concerned that a referral of Iran to the Security Council by the IAEA would result in international sanctions against a major trading partner, has proposed a less formal approach that would allow the council to discuss Iran's case and outline guidelines for compliance with international demands, the diplomats said. European diplomats discussed the negotiations on the condition they not be identified because of the sensitivity and volatility of the ongoing talks.

"The Russians say we have to take a very gradual, incremental approach," said a European diplomat close to the flurry of shuttle diplomacy this week between European capitals and some of Iran's closest allies, including Moscow, Beijing and New Delhi. "The objective is now to use the time until Feb. 2 to build a consensus. The wider the consensus, the stronger the message to Iran."