EU-China talks over how, not if, to sanction Iran

European talks with Chinese leaders over Iran have moved to the issue of how to target sanctions and away from whether sanctions should be applied at all, the European Union's foreign affairs chief said on Friday.

Catherine Ashton said she told Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao that sanctions were needed to keep pressure on Iran over its nuclear activities and that she felt that China had accepted that position.

"Premier Wen was clearly in process of saying we should have them (sanctions), but ... he wants them to be targeted," she told reporters.

Recent overtures by Iran for talks did not mean sanctions should be abandoned, she said, adding that she believed a two-track approach of dialogue plus sanctions was needed to keep up pressure.

Beijing faces growing calls from Western governments to support a fresh round of UN Security Council sanctions against Iran over its disputed nuclear activities, even as it tries to steer a diplomatic middle role between powerful, nuclear-armed states and those without nuclear capacity.

Although China has been discussing possible sanctions, it has also long stressed that Iranian demands for peaceful nuclear power must also be heeded, and has in the past expressed displeasure at sanction proposals impacting Iran's energy sector.

Iran rejects Western charges that it is secretly developing atomic weapons and says the goal of its nuclear program is the generation of electricity and other peaceful activities. But Iran has defied five UN Security Council resolutions ordering it to cease uranium enrichment.

After meetings with top Chinese diplomats, Ashton will fly to New York where she is due to address the UN Security Council.