TONY BLAIR and Condoleezza Rice emerged from talks at Chequers yesterday determined to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

In a move designed to seal a new level of partnership, the US Secretary of State also announced that Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, would join her in the United States next week for a three-day tour. Mr Straw and Dr Rice will visit the areas devastated by Hurricane Katrina and also Alabama, where Dr Rice grew up.

The trip was planned during a weekend of worsening relations between Iran and the British and American allies.

A senior official in Iran claimed that the US was behind the bombing of a shopping centre in Ahwaz on Saturday that killed four people, and that Britain might have been involved too — a charge Britain denied. Mr Straw, who had dinner with Dr Rice in London on Saturday, yesterday underlined suspicions raised by Mr Blair that Iran had a hand in bomb attacks on British troops in Iraq.

Mr Straw said that he had presented forensic evidence to Iran that showed a link between the Hezbollah terrorist group, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and sophisticated bombs that killed eight British soldiers. “We look to the Iranians to desist from anything they have been involved in in the past and to use their very considerable influence with Hezbollah to ensure that this continued use of Hezbollah technology stops in Iraq,” he said.

Iran’s Ambassador to Britain, Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli, denied the charge. “We have already rejected categorically any link between Iran and the incidents that have taken place in Iraq for the British troops,” he said on The World This Weekend on BBC Radio 4.

But Dr Rice said: “I trust the British on this. The British know the situation there.”

It is against this backdrop that Britain and the US have strengthened their resolve to deal with Iran’s nuclear programme. Downing Street said yesterday that Mr Blair and Dr Rice talked about Iran, affirming “their shared concern about the need for Iran to meet its international obligations”.

Mr Straw sought yesterday to reassure the public that the tactics agreed with the US would be diplomatic rather than military. “Military action in respect of the nuclear dossier is inconceivable,” he said. Almost two years of talks between Iran and the European Union broke down in August when Tehran broke UN seals at the Isfahan plant, where uranium is converted into a gas that can be used to make nuclear reactor fuel or bomb warheads. Iran said yesterday that it wanted to return to negotiations but gave no ground on the EU’s demand that it halt all nuclear fuel processing before talks can resume.

Washington and the EU are trying to persuade the governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency to refer Iran to the UN Security Council next month for violating international nuclear obligations, a move that could trigger sanctions against the country.

But Dr Rice’s campaign for a hardline approach to Iran suffered a setback on Saturday, when a trip to Moscow failed to win Russia’s support for referring Iran to the Security Council.

Yesterday Russia denied a report that alleged it had helped to supply Iran with ballistic missile technology that would bring much of Europe within its target range.

• Condoleezza Rice ruled herself out of contention for the Republican nomination yesterday (David Charter writes). She told NBC that she would not run for office either as President or Vice-President.

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