WASHINGTON, Sept 1: The United Nations Security Council could approve initial sanctions against Iran by the end of this month because of Tehran’s failure to meet an international deadline, US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said on Friday.

A UN deadline for Iran to heed the Security Council call to stop enrichment of uranium expired on Thursday.

Mr Burns, the Bush administration’s point person for its efforts to cap Iran’s nuclear programme, said that an IAEA report strengthens the US hand in arguing for quick UN sanctions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said on Thursday that Iran has continued to enrich uranium in defiance of a UN deadline to halt such work and has offered minimal cooperation with inspectors trying to assess whether its programme is for peaceful purposes.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog agency also claimed that its inspectors have discovered new traces of highly enriched uranium. Although such uranium has been found twice in the past, in both cases the IAEA concluded that some of those samples came from contaminated equipment that Iran obtained from Pakistan.

But the agency’s six-page report, sent to the Security Council, withheld judgement about where the material came from and whether it could be linked to a secret nuclear programme.

Mr Burns claimed that such findings have united the international community against Iran. “The Iranian regime miscalculated. It thought it could divide us from Europe, or divide us from Russia and China, but it has failed to do that,” he said.

Mr Burns is leaving for Berlin on Sept 7 to discuss possible UN sanctions against Iran with diplomats from the permanent members of the UN Security Council.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington that both before and after the Berlin meeting there will be diplomatic contacts with the Iranians to encourage them to comply with the Security Council resolution.

Mr McCormack said the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany had agreed earlier to support sanctions if Tehran fails to meet the UN deadline.

“There is unanimity of opinion here that Iran must face consequences for its continued defiance of the international community,” he said.