20 February 2005	Sunday	10 Muharram 1426

BRUSSELS, Feb 19: Military action against Iran's nuclear programme is not the United States's first choice but can never be ruled out, President George Bush said on Friday.

"First of all you never want a president to say never, but military action is certainly not, is never the president's first choice," Mr Bush told Belgian television channel VRT, when asked if he could rule out military action against Iran.

"Diplomacy is always the president's, or at least always my first choice and we've got a common goal, and that is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.," he said in the interview taped in Washington earlier and broadcast before his arrival in Brussels on Sunday for summits with NATO and the European Union.

EU officials want Washington to show more explicit support to efforts by Britain, France and Germany to win guarantees from Tehran that its nuclear programme is peaceful - for example by easing US resistance to Iran's candidacy for the World Trade Organization.

But Mr Bush, applauding the European efforts, suggested there was no divergence between the policy of Washington and Europe on Iran and voiced confidence that they could succeed together in ensuring that Iran did not develop an atom bomb.

"We've got a common goal and that is that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon...I think if we continue to speak with one voice and not let them split us up and keep the pressure on, we can achieve the objective," he said. -Reuters