The newspaper said President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and national security adviser Stephen Hadley met board members of Stanford University's Hoover Institution two weeks ago and the members had the impression that the Bush administration had shifted to a more robust policy against the Iranian government.

The Post quoted Esmail Amid-Hozour, an Iranian American businessman who serves on the Hoover board, as saying: "The message that we received is that they are in favor of separating the Iranian people from the regime."

Richard Haas, a former State Department policy planning director in Bush's first term, told the newspaper: "The upper handis with those who are pushing regime change rather than those who are advocating more diplomacy."

The Post also said the State Department set up an Iran desk last week, with 10 staff working full-time on Iran.

According to the newspaper, the sustained campaign against the Iranian government also includes expanding Voice of America broadcast into Iran to four hours a day from one hour for the timebeing.

It also said Bush, according to aids, has personally been spending more time on the Iranian issue and his advisers had invited around 30 specialists for consultations in the past months.

The United States has long accused Iran of running a covert nuclear arms program and insisted on referring Iran's nuclear issue to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions.

Iran, however, says its nuclear work is designed merely to meet its energy needs, reiterating its right to develop a full nuclear fuel cycle.