Trustworthy Signals

Speaking the day after he met with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Iran now needed to do more than make declarations of intent about its desire to end the standoff.

"We need what I would call trustworthy signals from the Iranian leadership," Steinmeier said during an interview with private television station n-tv.

"Decisions must be reached in Iran, and there still seem to be discussions going on about those decisions," the minister added, in what appeared to be a suggestion that the Iranian leadership was divided about which direction to take in the current talks.

"We have reached a decisive point in time but the decisive step has not been taken."

Conflicting signals emanating from Tehran

Larijani arrived in Germany on Wednesday for talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, designed to break the deadlock over Tehran's refusal to heed a United Nations call for it to cease its uranium enrichment activities.

But since his arrival, conflicting signals have come from Iran over Tehran's stance on the crisis.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki took a tough line on Friday, insisting there was no reason for his country to halt its nuclear programme, even temporarily.

"Iran does not see any reason to suspend nuclear activities," Iranian state television quoted the minister as saying.

Mottaki's comments followed talks between Larijani and Solana here on Thursday, which seemed to suggest a more conciliatory tone from Iran.

EU and Iran claim no deal but some progress

While both men emerged from the discussions stressing no deal had been struck, they nevertheless said progress had been made.

Steinmeier met with the Iranian negotiator after the Thursday talks, at Solana's request.

He said the precise details of his discussions with the Iranian negotiator would have to remain secret "as we are currently negotiating confidentially with Iran."

Steinmeier said he had of course informed Solana about the discussions and added that the EU foreign policy chief would meet the Iranian negotiator again in the middle of next week.

US increases pressure on Iran as talks stall

Meanwhile, the US Congress early Saturday gave its final approval to a new set of sanctions targeting foreign countries that continue nuclear cooperation with Iran and sell it advanced weaponry.

But mindful of the situation in Iraq, lawmakers warned that nothing in this document should be "construed as authorizing the use of force against Iran."

Although it does not name any countries, the measure is seen as a clear warning to Russia and China, two key members of the UN Security Council that have been resisting calls for new

international sanctions against Tehran in response to its refusal to halt uranium enrichment.

Russia has been involved in a 800-million-dollar project to help Iran build a nuclear power plant in Bushehr and has been selling it modern weaponry, while China has been accused of supplying the Islamic republic with advanced missile technology.

The bill that passed by the Senate in pre-dawn hours by voice vote and cleared the House of Representatives a day earlier came as Iran and the European Union are engaged in delicate negotiations designed to persuade Iran to halt its enrichment work and avoid a major international showdown.

EU and partners to report to US

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was expected to confer with Javier Solana and her counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia over the weekend to take stock of progress reached in these talks.

Following the carrot-and-stick approach adopted by Washington, the Iran Freedom Support Act states that it should be the policy of the United States "not to bring into force an agreement for cooperation with the government of any country that is assisting the nuclear program of Iran or transferring advanced conventional weapons or missiles."

The measure calls for this policy to remain in effect until Iran has suspended all enrichment-related activities, committed to verifiably and permanently refrain from such nuclear work in the future or the targeted country has severed ties with its Iranian partners.

The president has been granted the right to waive provisions of the bill, if he finds that US national security interests warrant it.

Bush to okay act to promote democracy in Iran

Mirroring the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act that set in motion the policy of regime change there, the bill authorizes the president to provide financial and political assistance to foreign and Iranian individuals and organizations that promote democracy for Iran. But to qualify for such aid they will have to commit to nuclear non-proliferation.

Under the measure, the US government may also award grants to pro-democracy radio and television stations that broadcast into Iran. "We have to increase our capability to mine resources and intelligence about Iran," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published Saturday. "And one of the challenges is that we haven't been in the country for 26 years."

President George W. Bush is expected to sign the bill into law.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a sponsor of the bill hailed its passage by saying that it would deny Iran "the technical assistance, financial resources, and political legitimacy to develop nuclear weapons and support terrorism."

Democrat calls for peaceful resolution

Tom Lantos, a Holocaust survivor and the top Democrat on the House International Affairs Committee, argued that the world should use every peaceful means possible "to defeat Iran's reckless nuclear military ambitions."

"If we fail to use the economic and diplomatic tools available to us, the world will face a nightmare that knows no end: a despotic, fundamentalist regime wedded both to terrorism and to the most terrifying weapons known to man," Lantos said.