Rice Says EU, Iran Holding Nuclear Talks

American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,left, and American Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton attend a High Level Panel Discussion on Iraq at United Nations headquarters, Monday, Sept. 18, 2006. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer) (Mary Altaffer - AP)

Any face-to-face discussions between Iran and the United States would be the most significant warming of relations in nearly three decades of estrangement.

"We have said that if Iran is prepared to suspend that, we're prepared, for the first time in decades, to sit down across the table from the Iranians and talk about ending their nuclear ambitions and providing a path for Iran's entry into the international system," Rice said on ABC's Good Morning America.

"I would meet anywhere with my counterpart at any time," once Iran has met that precondition, she said.

The United States has had extensive unilateral economic sanctions against Iran since shortly after the 1979 revolution and the storming of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

Although the U.S. remains Iran's main adversary because of America's military, political, cultural and economic dominance, Washington has little economic leverage against Tehran on its own. The U.S. needs Europe, at least, to impose any meaningful economic penalty on Iran, but tough sanctions on the oil exporter would hurt America's international partners as well as Iran.

The prospect of U.S.-Iran talks was meant to be a powerful lure for Iran, but Rice also dangled the offer of talks earlier this year as a means to shore up a shaky international coalition against Iran.

It worked, at least for awhile. This summer, world powers signed on to the principle that Iran would face at least mild initial sanctions if it blew the August deadline.

Now that the deadline is passed without concession from Iran, the nations that offered the deal for talks or consequences are meeting Tuesday night on the sidelines of the U.N. meeting.

In Washington, meanwhile, Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said there was "unity" on the Security Council to impose sanctions on Iran that would deny the country so-called dual-use technology _ equipment that could be used in a military program.

"Its leadership is continuing along a path of confrontation," Burns told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.