DAVOS, Jan 28: Britain and Germany warned Iran on Saturday it could be hauled before the UN Security Council over its nuclear ambitions, but both countries said they still hoped for a diplomatic way out of the impasse.

Since Iran’s 18-year secret nuclear programme was exposed three years ago, European Union nations Britain, France and Germany have tried to find a way to ensure Iran cannot make an atomic bomb while developing civilian nuclear technology.

Their patience has worn thin after three years of talks and the ‘EU3’ has backed American calls, endorsed unanimously by the US Senate on Friday, for Iran to be reported to the Security Council for a vote on economic sanctions.

Foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council members, plus Germany, meet in London on Monday to see if they can agree to call for Iran to be referred to the UN at an emergency meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna on Thursday.

“We are trying to persuade Iran to come back into compliance. There is some intense diplomacy taking place over this weekend,” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said on the sidelines of an economic summit in Davos, Switzerland.

“We will make judgments in the light of discussions which will occur on Monday in London,” he said on Saturday.

Signs of reluctance from veto-wielding Security Council members Russia and China to go down the sanctions route are likely to undermine the US and European calls.

But Germany’s foreign minister said sanctions against Iran were still possible.—Reuters