France PM regrets "very strongly" Iran response

ROME, Sep 1 (Reuters) French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said today he regretted Iran's defiance of a U.N. deadline to stop sensitive nuclear work, and urged the international community to unite to persuade it to change tack.

''I regret very strongly the insufficient response of Iran,'' Villepin told a news conference in Rome. The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said yesterday that Iran had failed to meet a Security Council deadline to suspend its sensitive nuclear work.

Speaking after a meeting with Italy's Prime Minister Romano Prodi in Rome, Villepin said the international community had to send a firm message to Tehran that its position was unacceptable, but stressed the need for diplomacy.

''We think it is possible to go forward with dialogue but it is important that the international community show Iran the necessity to change position,'' he said.

''(Any) solution must be workable and effective ... that is why dialogue is indispensable if we want to really guarantee a way forward which is good enough to do the job.'' In Paris French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said political directors from the five countries with permanent seats on the U.N. Security Council plus Germany would meet in Berlin on September 7 to discuss the way forward on Iran.

European Union foreign ministers meeting in Finland also outlined their concerns. ''For the EU, diplomacy remains the number one way forward,'' Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country holds the 25-nation bloc's rotating presidency, said.

REUTERS BDP PC1822