Ignoring international protests, Iran resumed work on its uranium-enrichment program yesterday after a two-year suspension. U.S. and European officials said that the move sharp-ly reduced chances of containing the country's nuclear ambitions through negotiation.In ordering international inspectors to break seals placed by the International Atomic Energy Agency on equipment at its enrichment plant at Natanz, the Iranian government also broke an agreement to freeze the most critical elements of an atomic program that it had kept secret for almost 20 years.
Natanz, a vast complex that lies partly underground, is designed to enrich uranium, which Iran says it would use on-ly to generate electricity. Refined further, uranium can fu-el atomic weapons, which the Unit-ed States and other foreign powers say they fear is Iran's ultimate goal.
Iran started its atomic program during the 1980s, when it was locked in an eight-year war for survival against Saddam Hus-sein's Iraq.
"There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful and it wanted to resolve long-standing international concerns," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.
"By cutting IAEA seals, Iran's leadership shows its disdain for international concerns and its rejection of international diplomacy," said Greg Schulte, the U.S. ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna.
For the past two years, Brit-ain, France and Germany have been negotiating with Iran for a permanent end to key parts of its nuclear program, in return for diplomatic and trade incentives. As the talks continued, Iran suspended limited elements of the program, but reserved the right to resume them.
In September, after it restarted work at a less sensitive nuclear plant, the board of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency voted in principle to refer the matter to the U.N. Security Coun-cil, which could impose sanctions or set demands that bring on a confrontation. The board stopped short of go-ing to the council, because of opposition from Russia and China.
Senior European diplomats said yesterday that they would formally propose on Thursday another emergency session of the agency's board of governors, made up of signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The diplomats said that such a meeting may be delayed by weeks as they attempt to persuade key member countries to back a referral to the Security Council.
President Bush, though supporting Europe's drive for a negotiated outcome, has repeatedly said that "all options are on the table" in dealing with Iran.
A U.S. official described the coming weeks as "about do-or-die diplomacy. If we fail to get broad support on this, there will be few options left for the international community to curb Iran's program."
One senior diplomat inEurope said that "people will need reassurances that they aren't being asked to sign a blank check for military conflict in Iran."
Diplomats regard China, which relies on Iran for 13 percent of its oil imports, as the hardest sell for a referral to the council. Yesterday, a leading politician in Russia who has previously supported Iran used blunt language to suggest that Moscow's position could change.
"The patience of the international community cannot be stretched for long," Konstantin Kosachyov, the head of the International Affairs Committee in the lower house of parliament, said on Echo Moskvy ra-dio. "First there will be the reaction of the IAEA, then the U.N. Security Council, and I suspect that, if provocations continue, Russia's stance will not be different from the stance of other permanent member-countries of the Security Council."
Privately, senior Russian officials have told their U.S. and Western European counterparts that they are wary of going to the council and may not even agree to an emergency board meeting.
In its public statements yesterday, Iran attempted to diminish the sense of confrontation.
"What we resume is merely in the field of research, not more than that," Mohammad Saeedi, the deputy chief of Iran's nuclear agency, said in Tehran. "We make a distinction between research on nuclear-fuel technology and production of nuclear fuel. Production of nuclear fuel remains suspended."
Iran told the IAEA that its research would include enriching uranium, by feeding the min-eral in gaseous form into centrifuges, the agency said.
Iran's attempts to calibrate the resumption of work and signal peaceful intent have been undercut in recent months by belligerent statements from its new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He has called the Holocaust a myth and called for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
"I think his words embolden the West in following through on their threats," said Ahmed Rezaei, 23, a civil servant in Tehran.
U.S. and European officials, wary of appearing warlike, said they are working toward a graduated response.
One official said that punitive measures would be considered only in response to pro-voc-ative moves by Iran, such as obstructing inspections or neglecting the country's nuclear-safeguard obligations.
Further complicating the pic-ture was the possibility of a last-minute compromise. Russia last weekend formally offered to enrich uranium for Iran, which would allay international fears of diversion to weapons programs.
Iran has indicated at least polite interest in the proposal, and talks are scheduled to continue in Moscow on Feb. 16. A European diplomat in Tehran expressed doubt that Russia was sufficiently committed to carrying the idea through to reality.
"The end of this story is not written," the diplomat said.