Italy, U.S. urge tougher international stance on Iran

ROME, Feb. 8 (Xinhua) -- Italy and the United States on Monday called for a tougher stance on Iran from the international community so as to halt its nuclear enrichment program.

Following a bilateral meeting, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates urged that the global pressure on Iran must be increased and agreed on the necessity of introducing more severe sanctions.

The two ministers stressed that the "destabilizing prospect of Iran as a nuclear power" was a risk the international community could not afford to run, according to local news agency ANSA.

Frattini appealed to both the Iranian government and world powers in taking a firm position. On one hand he demanded of Iran to end at once its "policy of seeking to buy time with the international community while pushing forward with its nuclear ambitions."

On the other, Frattini said the global powers must not allow Iran to constantly change its position on where to enrich uranium, whether at home (as Tehran appears to prefer) or sending it abroad as requested by the United Nations.

On Sunday the U.S. defense secretary and Italian Defense Minister Ignazio La Russa agreed to cooperate in raising international pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment program by employing "all licit means" and brushed aside the possibility of a military intervention.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered his country's atomic agency Sunday to start enriching uranium to a purity of 20 percent, but said Iran was still ready for an exchange of nuclear fuel with world powers.

The international community has proposed that Iran swap its low enriched uranium for nuclear fuel with either France or Russia, but that it completes the exchange of all its 1,200 kilograms of uranium in one go.

The West has accused the Iranian government of using its nuclear program to develop a nuclear weapon, a charge adamantly denied by Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Aside from Iran, Gates and Frattini discussed other global security issues. Regarding Afghanistan they called for "a greater connection between the civil and military objectives" in the peace- building mission.

On the Horn of Africa, Frattini talked about Italy's plan to hold a UN-sponsored international conference aimed at drawing international attention to the stabilization of the region.

The U.S. defense secretary arrived in Italy on Saturday and met with Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, to whom he expressed Washington's gratitude for Italy's support to the new U.S. strategy for Afghanistan.

Gates said Italy had done "more than any other ally" in sponsoring President Barack Obama's stance.

The Italian government decided in December last year to increase the number of the country's troops in Afghanistan by sending in an additional 1,000 soldiers this year.