Washington:
US President Barack Obama has said he wants tough new set of sanctions against Iran to be in place within "weeks" as his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy accused Tehran of being in a "mad nuclear race".
"My hope is that we are going to get this (sanctions against Iran) done this spring. I'm interested in seeing that regime in place in weeks," Obama said in response to a question at a joint White House press conference with Sarkozy.
But Obama acknowledged that major world powers had not closed ranks on imposition of biting new sanctions and warned that he was not interested in waiting months for a sanction regime to be in place.
"We think that we can get sanctions within weeks," Obama said, adding his administration is working to emphasise its international partners that this is not simply an issue of trying to isolate Iran.
The issue has enormous implications for the safety and the security of the entire region, according to him.
"We don't want to see a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. A conflict in the Middle East as a consequence of Iran's actions could have a huge destabilising effect in terms of the world economy at a time when it's just coming out of a very
deep recession," the US President said.
Sarkozy after closed door talks at the Oval office said that months of diplomacy to prepare the way for sanctions must come to fruition.
"Iran cannot be allowed to continue its mad race", the French President said adding that Europe would unitedly back these new sanctions.
The comments from the two Presidents that sanctions on Tehran were on their way came as a G-8 foreign ministers meeting in Canada called for stepping up pressure against Iran to abandon its suspected nuclear programme.
The foreign ministers also urged "in strongest possible terms" that Iran cooperates with five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany.