The US Congress will pass in late June a package of economic sanctions on Iran that will "complement and augment" those under consideration at the United Nations, key US lawmakers said Tuesday.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman have been working to craft legislation aimed at piling pressure on Tehran to freeze its suspect nuclear program.

"We will use the coming weeks to ensure that our legislation is crafted to complement and augment those other actions as effectively as possible," they said in a joint statement.

"We remain fully committed to passing a package of tough US sanctions in the latter half of June," they said, adding: "We expect that our legislation will be taken up and passed by both bodies in that time frame."

The United States succeeded in forging a compromise with the other four permanent members of the Security Council for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran for its defiance in refusing to halt uranium enrichment.

That process can be used to produce fuel for nuclear reactors, but in highly refined form, enriched uranium can be used to make an atomic weapon. Tehran denies charges by the big powers that it has a covert atomic arms program.

Washington said both Russia and China had backed a tough draft UN sanctions resolution against Iran.

The fourth round of sanctions would expand an existing arms embargo, measures against Iran's banking sector and ban it from mining uranium and developing ballistic missiles overseas, according to a US official in New York.

Dodd and Berman called the new UN sanctions proposal "useful," saying it was "a basis for the European Union and other nations to impose much stronger national sanctions on Tehran in the energy, financial and other critical sectors."

"We have always said that tough multilateral sanctions are the most effective means to persuade Iran to cease its efforts to develop a nuclear weapons capability," the lawmakers said.

The US bill would target Iran's gasoline imports in order to force the Islamic republic -- which depends on imports to meet 40 percent of its domestic demand -- to freeze its suspect nuclear program.

Dodd and Berman said they had initially planned to merge rival Senate and House versions of sanctions legislation and pass the compromise measure by late May, but said they would hold off given the work at the United Nations.

"Our overriding goal of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability is best served by providing a limited amount of time for those efforts -- and expected follow-on action by the EU at its mid-June summit -- to reach a successful conclusion," they wrote.

earlier related report
Merkel in Saudi after raising Iran sanctions in UAE
Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (AFP) May 25, 2010 - German Chancellor Angela Merkel held talks with Saudi King Abdullah Tuesday after calling for Gulf nations to help press Iran over its nuclear drive, the official SPA news agency said.

Abdullah, his half brother Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, and other top officials hosted Merkel and her delegation in a state banquet in the Red Sea port of Jeddah ahead of talks on regional and bilateral issues.

That followed a tour of the country's new co-educational science university, one of the key projects of Abdullah's modernisation programme.

On the second of a four-stop visit to the Gulf, Merkel flew into Saudi Arabia Tuesday from Abu Dhabi, where she called on the United Arab Emirates and Gulf countries to encourage a nuclear-free Iran and support Middle East peace efforts.

"When we look at the regional situation and the situation of the UAE, we can see how strong the interest for a peaceful solution in the Near East is, but also for an Iran that does not look for nuclear weapons," she told reporters.

"Gulf countries and in particular the UAE play an important role in the peace process in the Middle East and of course in relation with Iran," the German leader said.

Germany's secretary of state for the economy, Bernd Pfaffenbach, told AFP that Iran figured prominently in a meeting between Merkel and the Emirati president, Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan.

Talks in oil giant Saudi Arabia were expected to focus on similar issues.

Merkel first headed to the King Abdullah University for Science and Technology 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Jeddah.

Behind high walls and tight security, the world-class post-graduate research facility allows several hundred male and female students and professors from around the world to mix freely, unlike the rest of the country where ultra-strict Islamic rules force separation of the sexes.

She toured the university's nanotechnology fabrication facility and other laboratories, some of which are equipped with state-of-the-art German machinery and instrumentation.

On Wednesday Merkel and an entourage of German businessmen are to hold meetings at the Jeddah chamber of commerce, before heading off to Qatar and the Bahrain.