China feared undermining Iran sanctions

Combined news services

Worried that Chinese oil companies could be undermining new U.S. sanctions against Iran, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said he would push the Obama administration to investigate.

To try to get Iran to drop its nuclear work, Congress passed sanctions that were signed into law in July, targeting financial services and Iran's energy sector, hitting its ability to import gasoline and secure foreign investment.

Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) told the Reuters Washington Summit yesterday that he and the top Republican on the foreign affairs committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, will meet administration officials soon over concerns foreign oil companies, some of which have U.S. subsidiaries, are violating the new law.

In addition to the U.S. measures, new sanctions have been imposed on Iran by the United Nations and the European Union this year to try to force Tehran to halt sensitive nuclear work the West suspects is aimed at bomb-making.

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, primarily to generate electricity.

President Barack Obama said yesterday that Iran having a nuclear weapon would be a "real problem." But he said he did not think Israeli or U.S. military action was the "ideal way" to solve the crisis.

The White House said Obama would use a speech at the UN this week to tell Iran the "door is open" to better relations with the international community, if it can demonstrate the peaceful intent of its nuclear program.

At UN headquarters in Manhattan, meanwhile, French President Nicolas Sarkozy was the first to accept UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's challenge for nations to deliver more resources to combat global poverty, ignorance and misery. He pledged at the opening of the three-day UN Millennium Development Goals summit to boost France's annual $10-billion contribution to the world's poorest people by 20 percent over the next three years.

UN members resolved a decade ago to reduce extreme poverty by half, ensure that every child finishes primary school, halt the HIV/AIDS pandemic and reduce the number of those without access to clean water and basic sanitation, all by 2015.