UK aims to raise Iran pressure despite U.S. report

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain said on Tuesday it would continue to press for increased international pressure on Iran over its nuclear activities despite a new U.S. intelligence report saying Iran had halted a nuclear weapons program.

"There's an international community approach to dealing with the Iranian problem," a spokesman for British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said. "We will continue to argue for increased pressure on Iran through the (United Nations) Security Council and the EU (European Union)."

A U.S. intelligence report released on Monday said Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and it remained on hold, contradicting the Bush administration's assertion that Tehran was intent on developing a bomb.

The report was good news to the extent that it showed pressure had had some effect on Iran, the spokesman said.

"We think the report's conclusions justify the actions already taken by the international community to both show the extent of and try to restrict Iran's nuclear program and to increase pressure on the regime to stop its enrichment and reprocessing activities," Brown's spokesman said.

"It confirms we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons (and) shows that the sanctions program and international pressure were having an effect in that they seem to have abandoned the weaponization element," he said.

"But it also tells us the intent was there and the risk of Iran acquiring nuclear weapons remains a serious problem," he said.

The British government would discuss the report "with U.S.. colleagues at a number of levels," he said.

(Reporting by Adrian Croft; Editing by Keith Weir)