Obama vows to keep pressure up on Iran

Barack Obama, the US President, urged his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao to ratchet up pressure on Iran over its nuclear activities, but Mr Hu did not openly commit to new sanctions.

The leaders discussed the push to curb Iran's nuclear plans in a telephone call that followed China's agreement on Wednesday to join talks about possible UN-backed sanctions against Tehran. "President Obama underscored the importance of working together to ensure Iran lives up to its international obligations," the White House said after the call. "The idea is to keep turning up the pressure [on Iran]," Mr Obama said in a television interview. "We're going to ratchet up the pressure and examine how they respond but we're going to do so with a unified international community."