AFP: The United States has “tactical differences” with Russia and China on adopting new UN sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear program, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

AP: Some Republicans in Congress are second-guessing a government intelligence report that Iran has abandoned its nuclear weapons program. They want a second opinion.

AP: The U.N. Security Council will not take up new sanctions against Iran until early next year because of serious differences between the U.S. and key European nations who want tough measures and Russia and China who don’t, U.N. diplomats said Wednesday.

Reuters: Iran and a team from a U.N. watchdog ended the latest round of talks in Tehran on Wednesday aimed at answering questions about the Islamic Republic’s nuclear work, an Iranian news agency said.

AFP: French President Nicolas Sarkozy warned of a risk of a war with Iran if Israel considered its security seriously threatened by Tehran’s nuclear drive in a magazine interview to be published Thursday.

The Times: Britain and France, President Bush’s chief European allies, fear that last week’s US intelligence report stating that Iran had abandoned its nuclear weapons programme will be “counter-productive” in securing tighter UN sanctions against the Tehran regime.

New York Times: A week after American intelligence agencies reported that Iran halted work on a covert nuclear weapons program in 2003, the Bush administration expressed confidence on Tuesday that it had rallied international support to intensify diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran’s government.