Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei Technologies says it will cut back its business in Iran, where it aids state-run telecom operators, due to the "increasingly complex situation" there.

Iran keeps close tabs on its citizens, aided by imported technology, and faces rising Western sanctions over its nuclear programme and the treatment of its people since the state crushed protests over a contested 2009 vote.

Huawei will "voluntarily restrict its business development" in Iran "by no longer seeking new customers and limiting its business activities with existing customers," the Shenzhen-based company said on its website.

"For communications networks that have been delivered or are under delivery to customers, Huawei will continue to provide necessary services to ensure communications for Iran's citizens," the statement said.

In November, responding to what it called biased reporting, Huawei said that "we have never been involved in and do not provide any services relating to monitoring or filtering technologies anywhere in the world."

Also last month, the United States announced fresh sanctions against Iran's energy industry and warned firms against dealing with the Islamic republic's financial sector, naming the country "a primary money laundering concern."

The scaling back of Huawei's business in Iran follows a statement in February by the company's deputy chairman stating a desire to crack the lucrative US telecoms market.

In the aftermath of a bid to buy a US startup that failed over concerns about Huawei's ties to Beijing, Ken Hu said: "Huawei has been striving to demonstrate our capabilities with a view to becoming a key contributor in this important market" -- the US.

Huawei's US revenues in 2010 were $765 million, up from $319 million in 2009 and $51 million in 2006, a company fact sheet sent to AFP showed.

A Huawei spokesman reached by telephone declined to offer AFP details about the timing or reasoning behind the company's cutbacks in Iran.

China and Iran have recently become closer economic partners as Chinese companies fill a void left by the withdrawal of Western companies observing sanctions that Beijing has said will "exacerbate" the situation there.

EU eyes new Iran sanctions by January
Brussels (AFP) Dec 9, 2011 - European Union leaders warned Iran on Friday that the 27-nation bloc would impose new sanctions over its disputed nuclear programme next month amid calls from some members for an oil embargo.

EU leaders voiced in a statement "serious and deepening concerns over the nature of Iran's nuclear programme" following a report by the UN nuclear watchdog suggested Tehran may have worked on atomic weapons technology.

They also condemned an attack on the British embassy in Tehran by protesters and denounced "the Iranian government's failure to meet its international responsibilities to protect diplomatic staff and property under the Vienna Convention."

The leaders directed the council of EU foreign ministers to examine additional measures against Iran "as a matter of priority and to adopt these measures no later than by its next session" in January.

The statement, issued at the end of a two-day summit on the euro crisis, did not specify the type of sanctions but it calls for "extending the scope of EU restrictive measures and broadening existing sanctions."

The EU beefed up its sanctions again Iran last week, slapping assets freezes on an extra 143 firms and 37 individuals, who were also barred from traveling to the 27-nation union.

But EU governments are divided on imposing an embargo on Iranian crude, with importers of the Islamic republic's oil seeking more time to work out other options.

Oil from Iran in 2010 amounted to 5.8 percent of total EU imports, making Tehran the bloc's fifth-largest supplier after Russia, Norway, Libya and Saudi Arabia.

Spain represents 14.6 percent of Iranian oil imports to Europe, Greece 14.0 and Italy 13.1 percent.