The five United Nations Security Council permanent members said Wednesday they are seriously concerned by Iran's nuclear proliferation "risks" to the world, dpa reported.
The five permanent members - all of whom are nuclear powers - signed a joint statement to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) review conference in New York, backing the NPT as a fundamental treaty to protect world peace and security.
They raised "serious concern" over Iran's nuclear activities and urged North Korea to resume negotiations over its nuclear programmes.
"We underscore the importance of Iran's full and immediate compliance with its international obligations," said the statement signed by the United States, Russia, China, France and Britain.
"We urge Iran to respond to the concerns of the international community by complying promptly and fully with the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and with the requirements of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)."
Tehran has said that its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes and rejected accusations that it seeks nuclear weapons capability.
The five-powers statement said: "We strongly urge the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to fulfil the commitments under the six- party talks, including the complete and verifiable denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in accordance with the September 2005 joint statement, and we reaffirm our firm support for the six-party talks," which include North and South Korea, the US, China, Japan and Russia.
The five powers are determined to reach a "satisfactory resolution" on the North Korean nuclear dispute through diplomatic means, they said.
The talks had agreed on the possibility of making the Korean peninsula free of nuclear weapons in 2005. But since then the parties had not held serious discussion.
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