Rice hopes U.N. resolution on Iran will pass soon

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday she hoped the United Nations would vote within weeks to slap more sanctions on Iran and she urged allies to be more aggressive in punishing Tehran.

Foreign ministers from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany, agreed last month on the draft of a new sanctions resolution against Iran over its nuclear program, which the West says is aimed at building an atomic bomb and Tehran says is for power generation.

That draft is now being circulated among the other members of the 15-nation U.N. Security Council, but countries like South Africa and Libya are balking at the new resolution and would like to wait.

"I would hope that within a few weeks, at least, we would be able to get a vote, an affirmative vote," Rice told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee.

Washington had wanted the resolution passed at the latest before mid-March parliamentary elections in Iran.

The United States had been pushing for a tougher third round of sanctions against Iran, but gave in to Russian and Chinese objections and finally agreed to a watered-down version of the original draft, which targeted more Iranian banks.

"They are not as strong as the United States would have liked, but they have the effect of reminding Iran that it is isolated from the international community," Rice said.

She pointed to a new provision in the latest resolution that demanded the inspection of Iranian cargo as well as additional asset freezes on some Iranians.