国际英语新闻：British PM: Iran faces "clear choice" over nuclear program

LONDON, March 17 (Xinhua) -- British Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned Iran on Tuesday that it faces a "clear choice" over its nuclear program, and urged Tehran to let the world help it get civil nuclear power.

    In a two-day conference here, Brown said that unless it agreed to the UN overseeing the program, Iran faced "further and tougher sanctions."

    The conference is looking at how countries can gain access to nuclear power without developing their own uranium enrichment facilities that raise the risk of being used for military purposes.

    More than 100 officials from 37 countries, not including Iran, are taking part in the conference, as well as experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the nuclear industry.

    Six world powers have offered Iran civil nuclear cooperation and other incentives to try to persuade it to stop uranium enrichment, which the West fears is aimed at building a nuclear bomb. Iran says it only wants nuclear power for peaceful purposes and has pledged to press on with its program.

    "Iran's current nuclear program is unacceptable," Brown said. "Iran has concealed its nuclear activities, refused to cooperate with the IAEA, flouted UN Security Council resolutions and its refusal to play by the rules leads us to view its nuclear program as a critical nuclear threat."

    "Iran therefore faces a clear choice: to continue in this way and face further and tougher sanction, or change to a UN-overseen civil nuclear energy program, that will bring the greatest benefits to its citizens," he said.

    But Brown added that the world needed "moral leadership," urging "collaboration, not isolation."

    Britain would be "at the forefront" of efforts toward general nuclear disarmament when international talks are held next year, the prime minister said.

    "If it is possible to reduce the number we have of our own warheads ... Britain will be ready to do so," he announced.