Countries fail to agree on Iran sanctions
Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns also said the United States has not given up on efforts to resolve the dispute through diplomacy. Earlier this week, President George W Bush said "all options are on the table" - including the military option - to prevent Iran from developing atomic weapons.
"Nearly every country is considering some sort of sanctions and that's new," Mr Burns said after two days of meetings in Moscow.
He declined to specify which countries support possible sanctions. Russia and China, both of which are permanent Security Council members, are seen as the most likely to resist sanctions.
"What is new is a greater sense of urgency given what the Iranians did last week," Mr Burns said, referring to Iran's announcement that it had succeeded in enriching uranium.
Enriched uranium can be used to produce both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Earlier, Russia's foreign minister said the international community is demanding that Iran take "urgent and constructive steps" to ease concerns about its nuclear program.
Sergey Lavrov acknowledged that the latest talks among world powers brought no decision on how to proceed after Iran's hard-line president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced last week that his country "joined the club of nuclear countries".
Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani flew to Russia for talks with European officials.
