President Bush and European allies yesterday threatened tougher sanctions to squeeze Iran's finances and derail its potential pursuit of a nuclear weapon. Bush said the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran would endanger world peace.
"They can either face isolation, or they can have better relations with all of us," Bush said of Iran's leaders while capping his final European Union-US summit.
The president and EU leaders embraced new financial sanctions against Iran unless it verifiably suspends its nuclear enrichment. They said Iran must fully disclose any nuclear weapons work and allow the International Atomic Energy Agency to verify that work.
Iran is also under fire for defying three sets of UN Security Council sanctions and continuing to enrich uranium, which can generate both nuclear fuel and the fissile material for the core of nuclear warheads. Iran insists that it has only civilian uses in mind for its nuclear programme.
The president flatly said Iran "can't be trusted with enrichment."
"A group of countries can send a clear message to the Iranians," Bush said. "And that is: we're going to continue to isolate you, we'll continue to work on sanctions, we'll find new sanctions if need be if you continue to deny the just demands of a free world."
Speaking to reporters on the lush, sun-splashed lawn near Brdo Castle, Bush also fielded questions on economic woes at home and climate change.
Bush essentially rejected the idea of possible government intervention to prop up the value of the US dollar. He said he believed in a strong-dollar policy, but that world economies will end up setting the value of the dollar.
On global warming, Bush declared, "I think we can actually get an agreement on global climate change during my presidency," which ends on Jan. 20, 2009.
He said no global warming agreement can be effective without China and India. The United States has been at odds with allies about whether any climate strategy should include mandatory emission reductions, among other sticking points.
Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, the president of the European Council, said European members and the United States might have different approaches to some of its common challenges. He said a global agreement without the developing countries would be a short-term solution.
But he added "those who are the most developed have to take the leading role."
The summit, consisting of about three hours of meetings and a working lunch, took place in a modern glass building on the vast Brdo grounds in the shadow of Slovenia's jagged mountain peaks. The president had a long list of issues to cover with his European counterparts, but Iran seemed to dominate.