TEHRAN - Iran on Tuesday exulted at a U.S. intelligence report contradicting Bush administration assertions it was building an atomic bomb, but France said it would continue to press for further sanctions against Tehran.
Israel was sceptical about the report -- which said Tehran had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 -- and Britain urged continued pressure on Iran.
The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) report took U.S. friends and foes by surprise after years of strident rhetoric from Washington accusing Iran of pursuing a covert nuclear weapons programme.
Analysts said the report might undermine Washington's drive to persuade other world powers to agree further U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
Iran quickly welcomed the report, published on Monday, as a vindication of its long-standing claim that its nuclear programme had only peaceful civilian aims.
"It's natural that we welcome it when those countries who in the past have questions and ambiguities about this case ... now amend their views realistically," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told state radio.
"The condition of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities is becoming clear to the world."
But Britain, whose position on Iran is closely aligned with Washington's, said it would continue to push for increased international pressure.
"We think the report's conclusions justify the actions already taken by the international community to both show the extent of and try to restrict Iran's nuclear programme and to increase pressure on the regime to stop its (uranium) enrichment and reprocessing activities," a spokesman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said.
"It confirms we were right to be worried about Iran seeking to develop nuclear weapons (and) shows that the sanctions programme and international pressure were having an effect in that they seem to have abandoned the weaponisation element."
ISRAEL SCEPTICAL
France took a similar stand. "It appears that Iran is not respecting its international obligations," a French foreign ministry spokeswoman said.
"We must keep up the pressure on Iran ... we will continue to work on the introduction of restrictive measures in the framework of the United Nations," she said.
