BRDO (Slovenia), June 10: The United States and the European Union sought on Tuesday to turn up the pressure on Iran to drop its nuclear enrichment programme, saying they were ready to go beyond a latest round of UN sanctions.

But President George W. Bush acknowledged the limits of US influence over Tehran and, in the twilight of his presidency, appeared resigned to leaving the standoff to his successor.

“I leave behind a multilateral framework to work on this issue,” Bush told a news conference after a US-European Union summit at a Slovenian castle.

“A group of countries can send a clear message to the Iranians, and that is: We’re going to continue to isolate you ... we’ll find new sanctions if need be, if you continue to deny the ‘just demands’ of the free world, which is to give up your enrichment programme,” he said.

He stopped short of repeating the US position that all options, including military action, remain open, suggesting that no drastic steps were likely before he leaves office. “Now is the time for there to be strong diplomacy,” Bush said.

He met Slovenian leaders, who hold the EU’s rotating presidency, as well as European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has led efforts to get Iran to drop its enrichment programme.

Solana is expected to travel to Iran soon to present a new offer by major powers of incentives for it to suspend uranium enrichment, but he has played down prospects of a breakthrough.

“Iran with a nuclear weapon would be incredibly dangerous for world peace,” Bush said before setting off for Germany.

He is also due this week to visit France, Britain and Italy.

A statement released after the three-hour summit said the United States and EU were ready to deploy extra measures against Iran on top of existing UN sanctions.

All agree Iran should not be allowed to acquire nuclear weapons, a possible outcome of its uranium enrichment programme.

Tehran insists the programme is strictly for civilian purposes.

But it remained unclear how far the Europeans would be willing to go with Washington.

Washington has pressed the EU to deny some Iranian banks access to the world financial system. European External Rela-tions Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told reporters after the summit:

“We want to indeed show to Iranians that we mean it very seriously. ... (We are) particularly thinking of asset freezes.”

An Iranian newspaper said Iran was withdrawing assets from European banks and converting some foreign exchange assets into gold and equities to neutralise the impact of sanctions.

Bush was accused by critics of cowboy diplomacy during much of his presidency, but has tried to take a more cooperative approach with allies in his second term.

He acknowledges he is unpopular in Europe, as well as at home. “A lot of people like America. They may not sometimes necessarily like the president,” he told Slovenia’s Pop TV before setting off from Washington.

On climate change, EU policymakers say they have given up trying to get Washington to join with the bloc in signing up now to binding cuts of greenhouse gas emissions.—Reuters