French President Jacques Chirac said today any sanctions imposed against Iran over its nuclear programme should be "moderate".
Tehran has so far ignored an August 31st UN Security Council deadline to freeze sensitive nuclear work. Washington is pushing major powers to begin work on readying sanctions against Iran if there is no breakthrough soon.
But Russia, China and some European nations are wary of such a move and want to pursue dialogue with Tehran, a stance Mr Chirac supported.
"I do not believe in solutions that do not involve dialogue, in any case a dialogue taken to its limits," Mr Chirac said. "I am never in favour of sanctions. I have never observed that sanctions were very effective.
"I do not mean that we will not have to come to sanctions, which will have to, in that case, be moderate and adapted, but nothing is as good as dialogue," he said.
The United Nations has demanded Iran suspend activities related to uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for power plants or bombs, as a condition for opening talks on a package of incentives including civil nuclear co-operation.
Iran was referred to the Security Council for failing to allay fears that it is seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear energy programme. Tehran says it only wants nuclear technology to generate electricity.