This followed surprising comments by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, raising the specter of military intervention over the issue.

Kouchner appeared to suggest during a television interview Sunday that the international community should prepare for war if Iran acquires nuclear weapons.

He later stepped back from those comments, saying during talks in Moscow on Tuesday that ''everything must be done to avoid war'' and stressing there is a need to negotiate with Tehran over the nuclear standoff.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino repeated Tuesday that the United States, in coordination with negotiating partners from the United Nations Security Council and Germany, continues to pursue a diplomatic solution that includes ratcheting up economic sanctions on the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

''We are united in believing that we can solve this problem diplomatically,'' Perino said. ''We are working with the French and the rest of the EU (European Union) community in order to pressure Iran to comply with their obligations under the U.N. Security Council regulations.''

The United States, along with China, Russia, France, Britain, and Germany, has pushed for stronger sanctions against Iran as punishment for what it sees as Iran's defiant pursuit of nuclear technology aimed at building weapons.

A report from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Aug. 30 said Iran has continued its uranium enrichment program, despite demands from the Security Council that they be suspended.

Iran has consistently defended its nuclear program as intended only for peaceful purposes.

Envoys from the six negotiating countries are scheduled to meet Friday in Washington to discuss a new Security Council resolution leveling additional sanctions on Iran, a State Department spokesman said Tuesday.

The issue is also expected to come up during a Sept. 28 meeting in New York with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her counterparts from the other five nations.

The council adopted a sanctions resolution against Iran last December, but imposed fresh sanctions in March after Iran refused to suspend its enrichment activities. - Kyodo