PARIS, Sept 17: France followed up a warning that the Iran nuclear crisis could lead to war by calling on Monday for European sanctions against Tehran.French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said tensions with Iran are now “extreme”, heightening a diplomatic storm caused by Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s warning on Sunday that the world should prepare for a conflict over Iran’s alleged work on a nuclear weapon programme.

The comments infuriated Iranian leaders who accused France of stoking “tensions”. International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei called the war talk “hype”.

But while French leaders said they would prefer a negotiated settlement, they also launched a proposal to establish European sanctions against Iran, outside of those already implemented by the United Nations.

The five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany are to discuss new UN sanctions on Iran, which has rejected demands to stop enriching uranium.

Kouchner met his Dutch counterpart Maxime Verhagen in Paris and said European countries should prepare their own non-UN sanctions.

“These would be European sanctions that each country, individually, must put in place with its own banking, commercial and industrial system. The English and the Germans are interested in talking about this. We will try to find a common European position,” Kouchner said.

Britain, France and Germany have led European pressure, with the US backing, to try to persuade Iran to end its nuclear efforts in exchange for a package of economic and diplomatic measures.

Verhagen said that if the Security Council did not agree more sanctions, the Dutch government would be willing “to apply European Union sanctions in common with the United States sanctions.” On Sunday, Kouchner used the toughest language to date from a French minister, warning that “we have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war.”—AFP