Saturday, September 10 2005 12:00 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: Declaring Iran's refusal to halt its nuclear programme was unacceptable, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Russia, China and India yesterday (Sept 9, 2005) to join in threatening UN sanctions as punishment.

"Iran needs to get a message from the international community that is a unified message," Rice said at a news conference that focused mostly on talks she plans to hold in New York next week during the special session of the UN General Assembly.

She said she might say 'hello' to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad if they came across each other in UN corridors. But Rice, referring to ongoing US suspicions he played a role in Iranian radicals' takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979, gave no indication she was willing to have serious talks with him.

On another subject, Rice called for sweeping reform of the United Nations, including its management, though she said she expected to continue to work with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"The United States is the largest single donor to the UN and we need an accounting to the American people," she said.

Iran's refusal to accept a US-backed European Union offer of economic concessions to halt suspicious nuclear activities has renewed the Bush administration's drive for censure or sanctions in the UN Security Council.