Asked in parliament if he ruled out such action if Iran did not cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, Straw said: "We wish to see this matter resolved peacefully. I'm not going to predict what is going to happen except to say we have adopted a consistent approach in respect of Iran."

Straw was speaking as the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, was preparing to leave Wednesday for Iran, which faces an October 31 deadline to allay fears it is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

"The UK government has frequent contact with the government of Iran on this subject and we've made clear our serious concerns," Straw told parliament.

"We've also made clear our wish that Iran must maintain complete transparency about its nuclear programmes and comply fully with the demands set out by the IAEA board of governors resolution on December 12."

He said ElBaradei would be making a report to the IAEA board on November 7 to say whether Iran had complied with its demands.

WAR.WIRE