Clinton warns Iran against continued nuclear defiance

           Iran risks more international isolation and economic pressure if it continues to defy the world community over its nuclear ambitions, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday. Clinton told an audience at the Brookings Institution that talks next month between Iran and major powers concerned over its nuclear strategy represented a choice for Tehran and that there would be consequences for choices made. "Iran has refused for years to address the international community?s great concerns about its nuclear program," she said. "There will be accompanying costs for Iran's continued defiance: more isolation and economic pressure, less possibility of progress for the people of Iran. "We have made clear our desire to resolve issues with Iran diplomatically. Iran must now decide whether to join us in this effort." Iran has repeatedly said it will not agree to use the Oct. 1 meeting with major powers to negotiate away its right to a nuclear program, which it says is for producing nuclear energy. Israel, the United States and other Western countries are concerned the nuclear enrichment program is aimed at producing a weapon and Clinton said again that next month's talks must address the issue head-on. The international group, known as the P-5 plus 1, is made up of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - as well as Germany. Clinton said it was time for Iran to demonstrate that it is serious about allaying international concern. "Our concern is not Iran's right to develop peaceful nuclear energy but its responsibility to demonstrate that its program is intended exclusively for peaceful purposes," the secretary of state said. "This is not hard to do. Iran's continued refusal to cooperate has damaged the credibility of its claim that it does not seek a nuclear weapon." She added that she did not want to prejudge the potential outcome of the discussions, but repeated that Washington was "not in this just for the sake of talking". "We are to move forward, see what if any changes in approach, attitude, actions the Iranians are willing to entertain," she said. (02,20)