SEOUL: US President Barack Obama used a speech in South Korea’s capital, Seoul, to warn that the lesson of dealing with neighbouring North Korea was that Tehran must meet a deadline for complying with international demands and would face unspecified “consequences” if it did not.

The president’s remarks came a day after Iran appeared to definitively reject a proposal put forward in Vienna last month for sending enriched uranium to Russia and France for further processing, leaving negotiations at an apparent dead end.

“Iran has taken weeks now and has not shown its willingness to say yes to this proposal ... and so as a consequence we have begun discussions with our international partners about the importance of having consequences,” Obama said at a news conference with the South Korea’s president, Lee Myung-bak. “Over the next several weeks, we will be developing a package of potential steps that we could take, that would indicate our seriousness to Iran.” The two leaders also pressed North Korea to return to dormant nuclear talks.

Iran’s foreign minster, Manouchehr Mottaki, dismissed talk of further sanctions. “Sanction was the literature of the 60s,” he said.

On Wednesday Mottaki had appeared to reject the so-called Tehran nuclear research reactor (TRR) package but said Iran was ready for further talks.

The next diplomatic steps will be discussed today at a meeting in Brussels of the E3+3 though diplomats said no decisions were expected.

Obama failed to win assurances on his visit to China that Beijing would support fresh sanctions against Iran. Russia and France have been more supportive The UK Foreign Office said it was “very disappointed” by Iran’s failure to respond positively to the proposal by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that Iran should send 75% of its low-enriched uranium to Russia and France, where it would be turned into fuel for medical research.

“Iran must act now to restore confidence in its overall programme,” a statement said.

Gala Riani, an analyst at thinktank IHS Global Insight, said: “The deal has been viewed as an important exercise in confidence building, given in particular that it is the product of the first direct negotiations including Iran and the United States for some time.” Iran says it wants nuclear energy solely for peaceful purposes but its history of secrecy have raised suspicions of a quest for nuclear weapons. Israel, which wants to preserve its nuclear monopoly in the Middle East, has threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear sites if diplomacy fails.

British officials had privately doubted Iran would accept the TRR proposal, not least because of divisions in Tehran in the wake of last June’s disputed presidential elections. Diplomats reported initially surprising signs that Iranian negotiators were considering a deal but these vanished once they returned home.

UN nuclear watchdog presses Tehran

BERLIN: The head of the UN atomic watchdog has urged Iran to accept a deal over its nuclear programme by the end of the year, and “move beyond sanctions”.

Mohammed ElBaradei said the ball was “very much in the Iranian court”.

He was speaking as the six major powers negotiating with Tehran were holding talks in Brussels. They are discussing their response to Iran’s rejection of a key part of a deal that would allow it to continue to develop a nuclear reactor. A compromise suggested by Iran is likely to be rejected. Friday’s meeting involves the UN Security Council’s permanent members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - plus Germany.

The West fears Iran is trying to develop a nuclear weapons capacity. Iran insists its nuclear programme is for entirely peaceful purposes. ElBaradei - who is standing down as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on December 1 - was speaking in Berlin. “It is a unique opportunity to move from sanctions and confrontation to the process of building... trust,” he said.