BRUSSELS, April 29: The United States and the European Union struck different tones on Saturday on how to respond to Iran’s nuclear defiance while insisting they were in full agreement.

Speaking at a transatlantic conference, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said no one was considering military action over Tehran’s refusal to halt uranium enrichment and Europe did not want to join a ‘coalition of the willing’ against Iran.

Influential US Senator John McCain told the Brussels Forum in a speech on Friday night: “There is only one thing worse than military action, and that is a nuclear-armed Iran.”

He said the United States would not stand by and let Iran wipe out Israel, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had called for.

Tehran denies it aims to build a bomb and says its programme is purely for civilian energy purposes.

Former US Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, a leading Democratic foreign policy expert, said the response to Iran’s nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at making weapons, was a defining issue for transatlantic relations.

“Iran is the test case about whether we’ll have effective transatlantic cooperation,” Mr Holbrooke said.

The more divisions there were in the West and with China and Russia over Iran, the more likely it was that the United States would face the terrible choice painted by Mr McCain, he said.

Javier Solana, who has been involved in efforts by the EU’s three main powers — Britain, France and Germany — to negotiate a solution with Tehran, said he did not believe there were differences between the US and Europe on Iran. He said he did not believe anyone was seeking a ‘coalition of the willing’ to act against Iran and no European country wanted that.—Reuters