On Nov 13, news agencies reported that tougher sanctions on Iran’s oil and gas fields were proposed by Gordon Brown as part of international efforts to persuade Tehran to abandon its attempts to acquire a nuclear bomb.

Brown described the Islamic Republic as “the greatest immediate threat to non-proliferation”… and said: “Iran has a choice – confrontation with the international community leading to a tightening of sanctions or, if it changes its approach and ends support for terrorism, a transformed relationship with the world.”

Europe’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the UN atomic watchdog the IAEA will report shortly to the UN. In this regard Brown said: If it proved Iran was continuing to defy the international community, Britain would push for tougher sanctions both in the UN and by the EU.

In addition, Brown called for a nuclear fuel “bank” to aid non-nuclear states in gaining access to new sources of energy, provided they renounce nuclear weapons and meeting international treaties.