US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday that Iran is in "dangerous defiance" of the international community and must now be sent to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.

Speaking at a State Department briefing, Rice said that the United States fully agrees with Britain, France and Germany that Iran's resumption of uranium enrichment work "leaves the EU with no choice but to request an emergency meeting of the IAEA board of governors."

"That meeting would report Iran's noncompliance with its safeguards obligations to the U.N. Security Council," Rice said.

"We also agree that the removal of seals by the Iranian government in defiance of numerous IAEA board resolutions demonstrates that it has chosen confrontation with the international community over cooperation and negotiation," Rice added.

Nonetheless, Rice insisted that the United States wants "a peaceful diplomatic solution to this issue, which spares the world from the threat posed by a nuclear armed Iran."

Foreign ministers from the EU-3, or Britain, France and Germany, said earlier that the International Atomic Energy Agency should refer Iran's case to the UN Security Council and that their talks with Teheran had reached a "dead end."