U.N. resolution to name 2 Iran banks: diplomats

By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Six world powers have agreed that a new U.N. sanctions resolution on Iran would name two more Iranian banks but not put compulsory restrictions on doing business with them, Western diplomats said on Wednesday.

The foreign ministers of Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China agreed on the outlines of a new U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran in Berlin on Tuesday. But diplomats said the draft did not contain the tough punitive economic measures that Washington had been pushing for.

In March 2007 the Security Council imposed a second round of sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend a nuclear program the West fears is aimed at making bombs. Penalties included the freezing of foreign assets of 28 Iranian individuals and entities, including Bank Sepah.

The United States and its three European allies had hoped to impose similar restrictions on two other large Iranian banks -- Bank Melli and Bank Saderat, which are already under U.S. sanctions. But Russia and China opposed this, demanding instead a voluntary call for increased monitoring of the banks.

In order to reach agreement on the basic elements of a future resolution, Washington and the European trio decided in Berlin that they should compromise on this and other issues.

"Banks Melli and Saderat are mentioned but will not be subject to the kind of sanctions Sepah is," a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

"It's no secret that we would have preferred a stronger set measures but the unity of the group is as important as the measures," the Western diplomat said. A second Western diplomat from one of the six countries confirmed this.

He added that the new resolution would include a reference to credit guarantees for exporters to Iran but "without going as far as some of us would like". Export credits were not mentioned in the two sanctions resolutions already approved.