IAEA's ElBaradei says Iran sanctions a "bad idea"

DOHA, March 30 (Reuters) The UN nuclear watchdog's chief said today that Iran posed no imminent threat and that imposing sanctions on it would be a bad idea.

''Sanctions are a bad idea. We are not facing an imminent threat. We need to lower the pitch,'' the International Atomic Energy Agency's Mohamed ElBaradei told the Doha Debates forum in the Qatari capital.

''My message to Iran: the international community is getting impatient and you need to respond by arming me with information,'' ElBaradei said.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said earlier that sanctions could follow if Iran remained defiant and refused to halt its uranium enrichment programme as demanded by the UN Security Council yesterday.

Iran, which says it wants only civilian nuclear power, rejected a UN Security Council presidential statement adopted yesterday that called for an enrichment freeze and a report from the UN nuclear watchdog on Iranian compliance in 30 days.

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