JERUSALEM, Feb 13: Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said on Tuesday that North Korea's aid-for-disarmamnent deal with the United States shows that diplomatic and economic sanctions can work, and urged the international community to put similar pressure on Iran to drop its nuclear programme.

Pyongyang agreed today to shut down its main nuclear reactor and eventually dismantle its atomic weapons program, in return for aid equal to up to one million tons of heavy fuel oil.

Under the agreement, announced just four months after North Korea tested a nuclear bomb, the U.S. will also begin the process of removing the communist state from its designation as a terror-sponsoring state and of ending its trade sanctions.

Peres said that the accord could show the way toward getting Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions. Israel accuses Iran of pursuing nuclear weapons.

“Economic sanctions can really be effective, as evidenced by the change in the policy of North Korea,” he told Israeli Army Radio. “In my opinion, if there should be a serious coalition that imposes economic sanctions, the same thing can happen with Iran.”—AP