February 24, 2007	Saturday	Safar 6, 1428

WASHINGTON, Feb 23: US Vice President Dick Cheney vowed the United States would “do everything” it can to deprive Iran of nuclear weapons, and refused to rule out military action in a US television interview on Friday.

“We haven't taken any options off the table,” Mr Cheney said in an interview with the US ABC News network from Australia, where he is travelling.

“A nuclear-armed Iran is not a very pleasant prospect for anybody to think about,” Mr Cheney said. “We need to continue to do everything we can to make sure they don't achieve that objective.”

The United States, France and Britain called on Thursday for tougher Security Council sanctions on Tehran, while Germany, China and Russia have taken softer stances ahead of the meeting.

“We hope we can solve the problem diplomatically,” Mr Cheney told ABC on Friday.

President Bush “has indicated he wants to do everything he can to resolve it diplomatically. That's why we're working with the (European Union) and going through the United Nations with sanctions.

“But the president has also made it clear that we haven't taken any options off the table,” he said.

When pressed about what he meant, Mr Cheney said: “I'm not going beyond where I am. As we've said, we're doing everything we can do resolve it diplomatically. We haven't taken any options off the table.” President Bush, Defence Secretary Robert Gates, and other US officials have insisted that the United States is not planning to go to war with Iran.

But worries about US military action against Tehran have increased as the Pentagon has deployed two aircraft carrier groups in the Gulf region off Iran's southwest coast, the highest concentration of US naval firepower there since the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Reports elsewhere, however, claim that the US has contingency plans for a military attack on Iran. The London Times reported earlier on Friday that senior British government officials fear Mr Bush will launch an attack on Iran before his final term in office ends in a little less than two years.

They fear that Bush will seek to “settle the Iranian question through military means,” the daily reported, quoting unidentified senior British government sources.

“He (Bush) will not want to leave it unresolved for his successor,” one of the sources told The Times.

A day earlier British Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted on BBC Radio that there is “no planning” under way for an attack on Iran, adding that he knew of “nobody” in Washington who was planning an invasion either.

“You can't absolutely predict every set of circumstances that comes about but sitting here now talking to you, I can tell you Iran is not Iraq,” Mr Blair said.--AFP