Gates memo identified "next steps" on Iran

Defense Secretary Robert Gates discusses changes to the Pentagon's ''Don't Ask, Don't Tell'' policy prohibiting homosexuals from serving openly in the U.S. military during a media briefing in the Pentagon Briefing Room in Washington, March 25, 2010.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said on Sunday he sent a memo to President Barack Obama's national security team in January that identified "next steps" for dealing with Iran.

"With the administration's pivot to a pressure track on Iran earlier this year, the memo identified next steps in our defense planning process where further interagency discussion and policy decisions would be needed in the months and weeks ahead," Gates said in statement issued by his office.

The New York Times on Saturday reported that Gates's memo was a warning to the White House that it lacks an effective strategy to curb Iran's steady progress toward nuclear capability.

Gates said that was a mischaracterization and that the memo was not intended as a "wake up call," adding: "There should be no confusion by our allies and adversaries that the United States is properly and energetically focused on this question and prepared to act across a board range of contingencies in support of our interests."

(Reporting by Adam Entous, editing by Jackie Frank)