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UNITED NATIONS, March 4
(Xinhua) -- United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice
denied on Thursday reports that a draft resolution on Iranian sanctions
was circulating among members of the UN Security Council.

"We are not at the present
circulating a draft text of a resolution to Council colleagues here in
New York," she told reporters after a closed-door Council meeting on
Sudan and Iran.

The New York Times on Thursday said
Council diplomats had confirmed seeing a U.S.-drafted resolution that
proposes tougher sanctions on Iran's banking, shipping and insurance
sectors.

The proposed sanctions call for an
outright ban on certain transactions with Iran, whereas the existing
sanctions called on UN members to exercise "vigilance" or "restraint" in
interacting with Iran in some areas of weapons trade, shipping and
banking, said the Times article.

The Iran issue has been discussed
among the five permanent members of the Security Council -- China,
France, Britain, Russia and the United States -- and Germany, known as
P5 Plus One.

"We continue to have constructive
discussions with all our partners of the P5 plus One, who agree that we
share the crucial goal of not allowing Iran to obtain a nuclear weapons
capacity," Rice said.

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