The draft measure introduced Wednesday does not impose sanctions for non-compliance but does threaten "to consider such further measures as may be necessary to ensure compliance with this resolution and decides that further examination will be required should such additional steps be necessary."

This makes clear non-compliance will not automatically give a green light for any kind of action.

No deadline was set for a compliance report by the International Atomic Energy Agency requested in the draft resolution.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton told reporters before entering closed door consultations of the council the draft resolution was under the U.N. Charter's Chapter VII. That means sanctions or military action could be used to enforce the measure, which would carry the weight of international law if approved. However, he said it does not call for sanctions.

"We will put down a resolution based on Chapter VII and which will make mandatory, in our view, a requirement that Iran should stop enrichment work and should stop research and development and the prospect of development of heavy water reactor," said British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry on his way to the consultations. "That's our primary objective."

He added there will be an unspecified period of time for Tehran to report back to the council on its compliance.

"There will be a relatively short period for Iran to come into compliance, X number of days," Bolton said. "I would be happy with a very small number of days. But we are going to work this out."

The draft resolution noted "with serious concern" the many IAEA reports and resolutions "related to Iran's nuclear program" including reports with "topics which could have a military nuclear dimension and that the IAEA is unable to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran."

It said IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei's report that "after more than three years of agency efforts to seek clarity about all aspects of Iran's nuclear program, the existing gaps in knowledge continue to be a matter of concern."

The measure called on Tehran "without further delay" to satisfy the monitoring agency "which are essential to build confidence in the exclusively peaceful purpose of its nuclear program and to resolve outstanding questions."

The draft resolution ordered Iran to "suspend all enrichment --related and reprocessing activities... and suspend the construction of a (nuclear) reactor moderated by heavy water."

Such verified action by Tehran "would contribute to a diplomatic, negotiated solution that guarantees Iran's nuclear program is for exclusively peaceful purses and underlines the willingness of the international community to work positively for such a solution which will also benefit nuclear non-proliferation elsewhere."

U.N. member states also are ordered in the resolution "to exercise vigilance in preventing the transfer of items, materials, goods and technology that could contribute to Iran's enrichment-related and reprocessing activities and missile programs."

This could be problematic for Russia, building a nuclear facility for Iran, and North Korea, which has been reported to have supplied help in the ballistic missile field. Some nuclear know-how came from the Pakistani A.Q. Khan black market network but that has been shut down, Islamabad assures.

What sets this draft apart from resolutions in the Iraq crisis, is that it spells out clearly this measure is only calling for compliance and threatening, as it was presented to the panel, possible unspecified action under Chapter VII.

The seventh and eighth operating paragraphs of the draft said, "further examination will be required should such additional steps be necessary (and) full, verified compliance by Iran, confirmed by the IAEA Board, would avoid the need for such additional steps."

The United States cited a similar Chapter VII resolution imposing sanctions before leading the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Both Bolton and Jones Parry said the panel of 15 would discuss the recent IAEA report, then have an airing of views on the draft resolution, the first step of what the Washington envoy called a "two step" process.

"If Iran continues to "bluster and to threaten, obfuscate and try to throw sand in our eyes, then we are on to a different circumstance," added Bolton, delivering his own threat.

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