Obama uses G8 debut to issue warning to Iran

By Matt Spetalnick

L'AQUILA, Italy (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama warned Iran on Friday the world will not wait indefinitely for it to end its nuclear defiance, saying Tehran had until September to comply or else face consequences.

Obama, speaking at the end of a G8 summit in Italy, said leaders had sent a message condemning the "appalling" events surrounding Iran's disputed presidential election and expressing solidarity against Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

He said he hoped Iran would enter negotiations on the issue and that leaders would review the situation again at a G20 meeting of developed and developing countries in Pittsburgh in September.

"If Iran chooses not to walk through that door, then you have on record the G8, to begin with, but I think potentially a lot of other countries that are going to say we need to take further steps," Obama told reporters.

"We also say we're not going to just wait indefinitely and allow for the development of a nuclear weapon, the breach of international treaties, and wake up one day and find ourselves in a much worse situation and unable to act," he said.

Obama made clear he was sticking to his strategy of trying to engage Iran diplomatically, a departure from his predecessor George W. Bush, who pursued a policy of isolation.

But Obama's approach has been complicated by Iran's June 12 presidential election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the victor by a wide margin and security forces cracked down violently on protesters who claimed voting fraud.

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