The measures, which will notably stop the operations of European offices of the bank in London, Hamburg and Paris, were to be approved during a meeting of EU agriculture and fisheries ministers Monday and Tuesday in Luxembourg, the sources said.

The new sanctions, aimed at persuading Tehran to suspend its nuclear enrichment activities, also add more names of people and organisations to the EU's visa-ban and assets-freeze lists.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.