Tom Casey, a department spokesman, said the matter came up at a meeting of the five permament members of the UN Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain -- plus Germany.

He said US Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns raised the issue of "the need for some form of sanctions" in response to Iran's refusal to curb its uranium enrichment activities.

"Certainly this is an issue where there will be continued discussion," Casey said. Asked if this meant no agreement was reached, he replied, "This meeting was not intended to reach decisions on a specific course of action."

Casey said Burns and the political directors of the other five countries had more than three hours of discussions over dinner and all agreed that "Iran has crossed the line laid out by the international community."

"Everyone agreed on the need to find the diplomatic means to get Iran back into compliance wth its international obligations and they also agreed on the need for further discussions of how to do that in the UN Security Council," Casey said.

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