N. Korea Crisis Hurts Unity on Iran Nukes

Iranian Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, speaks with the media during a press conference at the conclusion of Iraq's neighbors meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, July 9, 2006. Iran warned the Group of Eight Sunday against making any decisions on Iran's nuclear program without consulting it first, arguing that this could harm Tehran's talks with the European Union. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi) (Vahid Salemi - AP)

-- With the uproar over North Korea's missile tests, America and its allies are fretting that all the attention could hurt their effort to curb Iran's suspect nuclear program.

Some diplomats involved in both issues fear international focus is shifting too much to Pyongyang, which test-fired seven missiles Wednesday. The U.N. Security Council is working on a resolution on North Korea as the U.S. and other nations seek ways to engage the regime in talks.

Publicly, senior officials say Washington and other big powers can keep both balls in the air.

"I don't agree that one issue distracts from the other," John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, told The Associated Press in a phone call from New York. "I think we are very focused on both of them and fully capable of dealing with both of them."

But privately, diplomats based in Europe said over the past few days that the North Korean crisis could push talks with Iran further down the international agenda.

Iranian officials, who insist they are wrongly suspected of trying to develop atomic weapons, have said they will not respond before mid-August to an incentives offer extended by six nations seeking to get Iran to stop enriching uranium.

The six countries _ the five permanent U.N. Security Council nations and Germany _ want an answer by Wednesday, when their foreign ministers consult in Paris. But a diplomat said Iran is trying to delay its response past next weekend's Group of Eight summit hosted by Russia.

Before the summit, the U.S. and its allies on the Security Council _ all G-8 members _ "can apply pressure on Russia" to stand with the West in dealing with Iran, the diplomat said. That lever will be weaker after the St. Petersburg meeting, he said.

Like others interviewed, the diplomat agreed to discuss the Iranian and North Korean standoffs only if granted anonymity because of the sensitive nature of negotiations among all the parties.

The North Korean crisis is, in some ways, similar to international concerns about Iran's nuclear program _ and that worries diplomats and European officials involved in trying to entice Tehran into negotiations because both involve the same major players.

"We are trying to negotiate two sanctions resolutions with the same countries involved in both cases," said a U.N. diplomat familiar with Security Council efforts to pressure both Tehran and Pyongyang to compromise. "This will be a very complicated challenge."

The United States, France and Britain support U.N. sanctions for both countries if they don't back down, while that is opposed by Russia and China, the council's other two permanent members that have the power to veto its actions.