By EDITH M. LEDERER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, November 7, 2006; 11:26 PM

UNITED NATIONS -- China said Tuesday that the five veto-wielding Security Council members are so divided over a resolution that would impose sanctions on Iran that some differences can't be bridged.

The four other permanent council members _ the United States, Russia, Britain and France _ weren't as pessimistic but all agree that there are three different views on how to deal with Iran and reconciling them isn't going to be easy.

Britain and France outlined their draft resolution at a closed council meeting on Tuesday morning to the 10 non-permanent members who are elected to two-year terms on the U.N.'s most powerful body.

It orders all countries to ban the supply of material and technology that could contribute to Iran's nuclear and missile programs and impose a travel ban and asset freeze on companies, individuals and organizations involved in those programs.

It would exempt the initial nuclear power plant being built by the Russians at Bushehr, Iran, but not the nuclear fuel needed for the reactor. It would also limit assistance to Iran by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, to food, agriculture, medical and humanitarian programs. And it would ban countries from teaching or training Iranians in disciplines that would contribute to Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Russia has proposed major changes to the European draft that would limit sanctions to measures that will keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles and eliminate any mention of Bushehr. The United States has also proposed amendments that would strengthen the measures proposed by Britain and France.

After a meeting Tuesday afternoon of the five permanent members and Germany, which has been a key player in European negotiations with Iran, China's U.N. Ambassador Wang Guangya whose country supports the Russia text told reporters: "The mood is that we are not in serious discussion."

Wang said the six ambassadors tried to see whether they could bridge differences between the Europeans, Russians and Americans.

"Clearly, I think in a number of difficult areas the differences cannot be bridged, so I believe there should be more reflections in the capitals and also I believe we need to talk to each other," he said.

Wang said there are also different interpretations about what ministers from the six countries agreed on at a meeting in London last month.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin agreed that "there is a considerable gap."

Both Russia and China, which have major commercial ties with Iran, have continued to publicly push for dialogue instead of U.N. punishment, despite the collapse last month of a European Union attempt to entice Iran into talks.

The five permanent council members and Germany offered Iran a package of economic incentives and political rewards in June if it agreed to consider a long-term moratorium on enrichment and commit to a freeze on uranium enrichment before talks on its nuclear program.

But Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly and defiantly said his country would continue enrichment, and is not intimidated by the possibility of sanctions.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said Tuesday that the United States doesn't think the Russia text "is consistent with what foreign ministers had agreed previously."

France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said "the main issue is about the scope of the sanctions."

The Russians want sanctions "limited just to the enrichment and reprocessing and we think that sanctions have to be broader."

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Tracee Herbaugh contributed to this report from New York.