U.S. wants direct talks with Iran on atom work: envoy

New U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice appears at the United Nations headquarters to present her credentials to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon in New York, January 26, 2009.

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Monday the new administration would make Iran's nuclear program a top diplomatic priority and would pursue direct talks with Tehran.

"We remain deeply concerned about the threat that Iran's nuclear program poses to the region, indeed to the United States and to the entire international community," Ambassador Susan Rice told reporters after 45 minutes of closed-door discussions with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

"We look forward to engaging in vigorous diplomacy that includes direct diplomacy with Iran," she said.

The administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush had been pushing last year for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran for refusing to suspend its uranium enrichment program.

But the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany -- often referred to as the "P5+1" -- had put discussions on next steps with Iran on hold until the administration of Barack Obama was in office, council diplomats have said.

The United States, European Union and other Western powers suspect Tehran is amassing the capability to produce nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are limited to the peaceful generation of electrify and refuses to freeze a program that it says is its sovereign right to have.

In her first encounter with reporters at the United Nations, Rice gave no specifics about what lay ahead for Iran.

She said Washington would continue its "collaboration and partnership with the P5+1 and we will look at what is necessary and appropriate with respect to maintaining pressure toward that goal of ending Iran's nuclear program.

"Dialogue and diplomacy must go hand-in-hand with a very firm message from the United States and the international community that Iran needs to meet its obligations as defined by the (U.N.) Security Council and its continued refusal to do so will only cause pressure to increase," Rice said.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Bill Trott)