"While G8 ministers agreed to remain open to dialogue with Iran, they also called on the international community to take appropriate steps to put pressure on Iran," Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon said Tuesday at the end of two days of talks in the Canadian town of Gatineau.

Iran's defiance, lack of transparency in the construction of an uranium enrichment facility near Qom and refusal to engage the international community are of "serious concern" to the G8, Cannon said.

G8 foreign ministers urged "in the strongest possible terms" that Iran cooperate with five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany, amid fears that Tehran is trying to acquire a nuclear bomb.

With international momentum building for new sanctions, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted that if Iran continued to ignore global pleas the UN Security Council would soon reach a consensus on further sanctions.

"The last 15 months have demonstrated clearly the unwillingness of Iran to fulfill its international obligations," Clinton said, flanked by her G8 counterparts.

She predicted "the next weeks will be ones of intense negotiation" among Security Council members and many interested countries.

In Washington, US President Barack Obama and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy also upped the pressure on the Islamic republic, which has hotly denied the accusations, saying its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Obama said he hoped to impose new international nuclear sanctions on Iran within "weeks" but admitted Washington did "not yet" have global agreement to do so.

"And that's something that we have to work on," Obama said, admitting that Iran was a major oil producer and had a plethora of commercial partners.

"The time has come to take decisions. Iran cannot continue its mad race," agreed Sarkozy at a White House press conference, saying he had worked with British and German leaders "to ensure that Europe as a whole engages in the sanctions regime."

Clinton affirmed late Monday that China would participate in Iranian sanctions talks, aimed at imposing a fourth set of UN sanctions on the country.

Beijing has been seen as the most hesitant member of the so-called "P5-plus-1" group who are negotiating with Tehran.

The group of eight most developed nations -- Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States -- also agreed to roll out a "robust" counter-terrorism plan at the G8 leaders summit in Muskoka in June.

They also called on Afghanistan to make swift reforms and clamp down on terrorism.

"All of us have invested heavily, and at considerable cost in lives, in helping Afghanistan to build a peaceful and stable state that will never again be a haven for terrorists," Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said.

He and G8 foreign ministers called on Kabul to "assume greater responsibility for its own security," as well as live up to its promises to deliver good governance and basic services to its population.

"We at this table must continue to provide support, while ensuring the Afghan government lives up to its commitments," Harper told G8 ministers, who urged Karzai to outline "bold" moves to deliver on promises he made in January.

"The government of Afghanistan should take concrete and transparent steps to deliver on its commitments... to ensure the integrity of parliamentary elections in 2010," the ministers said.

Striking a tone of impatience at the meeting, G8 ministers said they expected Karzai to clarify his government's "vision for the country" at an Afghan conference in Kabul in May.

Obama said on US television: "I think that the progress is too slow, and what we've been trying to emphasize is the fierce urgency of now."

In February, NATO-led troops launched their biggest offensive in southern Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban in 2001. Another major offensive is planned for June in Kandahar. The moves are seen as the first real tests in Obama's military strategy to restore stability there.

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