Britain told the UN Security Council that new Iranian individuals and entities should be added to sanctions lists while France said there should be a detailed investigation of Iran's sanctions-busting.

The concerns were raised after the seizure of 13 containers of rockets, mortars and other weapons in Nigeria last month and up to seven tonnes of high explosive in Italy in September.

British ambassador Mark Lyall Grant told a Security Council meeting on Iran sanctions that the new seizures were part of "a pattern of violations" after other raids, some involving Iran's weapons trade with North Korea.

Lyall Grant said the Security Council's sanctions committee should consider adding the names of more Iranian individuals and entities to sanctions lists "to prevent further violations and sanctions evasion."

France's representative, Martin Briens, said the seizures show that the four rounds of UN sanctions ordered against Iran's nuclear program are having an impact.

"Iran has to make use of increasingly complex and complicated routes and schemes. Thus we can only underscore the gravity of this type of smuggling," Briens told the council.

He said Iran was behind "a considerable flow of arms and other dangerous material" and that "worrying new routes" for shipments have been found in Africa.

"This is without doubt only the tip of the iceberg," he declared, calling for a more detailed investigation of the two new cases and the "evasion techniques" used by Iran.

US ambassador Susan Rice backed the calls for a more thorough investigation which she said would "help us better understand and to halt Iran's arms smuggling and proliferation networks in violation of this council's resolutions."

Nigerian agents seized 13 containers of weapons in the port in Lagos in October. The containers were loaded at the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and were reportedly destined for Gambia.

An Iranian and three Nigerians face charges in Nigeria. Authorities there also wanted to question an Iranian diplomat, but the Tehran government has refused to lift the diplomat's immunity.

Customs officers at Gioia Tauro in southern Italy seized between six and seven tonnes of RDX high explosives on September 21 that were en route from Iran to Syria, according to Italian media.

The explosives were hidden in a container transporting powdered milk.

Last year, seizures included military hardware being sent from North Korea to Iran.

The West accuses Iran of seeking a nuclear bomb. The Islamic state insists its research is peaceful.

Council ambassadors welcomed this weeks talks between Iran and the six international powers in Geneva and the plan for more in January. But the Western powers again warned that Iran risked deeper isolation if it was not more cooperative with nuclear investigators.

"We are clear that the next talks should include a candid discussion on the many international concerns relating to the Iranian nuclear program and Iran needs to show real progress in these concerns," said the British ambassador.

If Iran "builds international confidence and respects its obligations we will reciprocate. But if Iran refuses its isolation will only grow," warned Rice.

earlier related report
Pope helped free 15 British sailors held by Iran: US cable
London (AFP) Dec 10, 2010 - The Vatican helped secure the release of 15 British navy personnel detained by Iran in 2007, a US envoy to the Holy See said in a document leaked by WikiLeaks and published Friday.

Julieta Noyes, US deputy chief of mission to the Vatican, made the assertion in a classified cable dated June 26, 2009, intended to set the scene ahead of US President Barack Obama's trip to Rome the following month.

Against a backdrop of deadly protests in Tehran over the re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, she wrote: "It (the Vatican) has been publicly silent to date on the current crisis, in part to preserve its ability to act as an intermediary if an international crisis emerges.

"The Vatican helped secure the release of British sailors detained in Iranian waters in April 2007."

But she provided no further detail and added: "It is unclear how much clout the Vatican really has with Iran, however."

Iran seized the British sailors on March 23, 2007, while they were on patrol near the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran.

It accused them of illegally entering Iranian territorial waters, a charge Britain denied, and only released them after 12 days in an incident widely viewed as humiliating for Britain.

A separate leaked US cable dated April 2, 2007 -- right in the middle of the stand-off between Iran and Britain -- contains a commentary by a US official about Tehran's intentions.

"Iran is using its seizure of the British sailors to prove its 'toughness', after facing repeated 'humiliations' on the international political front'," the official says.

But the official suggests Iran targeted British rather than US military personnel because it would cause less of a global reaction.

Another cable dated April 11, 2007, says the British credited Oman with helping secure the sailors' release, after the foreign minister made regular calls to the Iranian authorities to urge they be freed.

The Foreign Office in London refused to comment on the leaked cables, which were published online by The Guardian, one of a number of newspapers worldwide that has been given access to about 250,000 files leaked by WikiLeaks.

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