UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan yesterday called for urgent action on the Iranian nuclear crisis but said he was encouraged by diplomatic efforts to resolve the simmering dispute between Tehran and the West.

European Union foreign ministers met yesterday in Brussels to work out technical, trade and political sweeteners for Iran in exchange for allaying Western fears it is seeking to produce an atom bomb, notably by halting uranium enrichment.

Annan met South Korean Foreign Minister Ban Ki-moon and discussed ways to resolve the Iraninan crisis and also the North Korean nuclear standoff, both of which he said have the potential to escalate a spread of nuclear weapons.

“Today we also have Iran,” Annan told a news conference after meeting Ban, a contender for his top UN job.

“The international community has to take very urgent steps to deal with these issues before we have a cascade of a proliferation of nuclear weapons,” he said during a joint press conference with Ban.

Washington and its European allies have been seeking to pass a UN Security Council resolution that would oblige Iran to halt all uranium enrichment work or face possible sanctions.

Annan last week urged the United States to enter direct talks with Iran to ease a crisis over Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, a plan which Washington has rejected.