**Time is running out for Iran if it wants to avoid sanctions over its nuclear programme, the US has said.**The announcement comes after Tehran continued to defy the six countries trying to negotiate a deal over their nuclear material.
They believe Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, but Iran says its programme is for civilian use.
Iran has rejected a deal suggested to allay international fears over Iran’s attempts to enrich uranium.
Existing UN sanctions are meant to prevent the flow of any items or technology which might aid Iran in enriching uranium or developing nuclear weapon delivery systems.
But further sanctions might be imposed if diplomacy fails, negotiators say.
“Time is running out. That deadline is the end of the year,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told journalists on Wednesday.
Enrichment plans
Six nations - the US, UK, France, Germany, China and Russia - have been involved in co-ordinating the UN Security Council’s position on Iran.
They suggested uranium enrichment for civilian nuclear energy could be regulated if Iran handed over its uranium to Russia to manage the process.
But Iran rejected that suggestion.
On Wednesday President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Iran will stick to its plans to enrich its own uranium to a higher degree than at present.
On Thursday Iran’s Parliament said it would review relations with counties who had backed a condemnation of the Tehran government at the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Russia, previously considered an ally of Iran, had joined the vote at the UN International Atomic Energy Agency that condemned Iran for the cover-up of a second nuclear facility in the mountains near Qom.
But on Thursday Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin apparently eased its pressure on Iran, declining to answer a question on possible sanctions at a televised question-and-answer session.
Russia had “no information that Iran is working on the creation of a nuclear weapon” Mr Putin said.
Meanwhile the White House renewed appeals Thursday for Tehran to shed light on the case of a former FBI agent who disappeared 1,000 days ago while visiting an Iranian resort island in the Gulf.
Robert Levinson, who retired from the FBI a decade ago, had travelled to Kish Island to investigate cigarette counterfeiting in the region, his wife says.