Calls to halt Iran's nuclear drive

US Senator John McCain says the United States has been backing away from a fight with Iran, while the country moves ever closer to having nuclear weapons.

A general view of Bushehr nuclear power plant, 1200 kms south of  Tehran in 2006. As pressure mounts for new sanctions against Iran,  experts say its alleged nuclear weapons programme is struggling to  find scientists and technicians and faces sabotage by Western and  Israeli agents.(AFP/File/Behrouz Mehri)

McCain opened a Senate hearing in Washington, saying Iran would develop a bomb unless the United States acted more boldly. He suggested that the time had come to "pull the trigger" on the threats the Obama administration has been making towards Iran. Meanwhile, the Iranian government announced on Wednesday that it had succeeded in producing its first significant batch of further enriched uranium.