The United States downplayed differences with Russia Friday over new US sanctions meant to punish the Islamic republic`s nuclear ambitions and alleged sponsorship of terrorism.

Asked about Russia`s apparent non-support for the unilateral US sanctions announced Thursday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice allowed on NBC television that "we may have some tactical differences."

But she insisted that Moscow did not want Tehran to have a nuclear weapon either, and that the United States and Russia were on the same page with regard to Iran at the United Nations.

"A nuclear weapon in the hands of the Iranian regime would be deeply destabilizing, and we cant sit idly by," Rice said.

"The international community needs to get tough, to give the sanctions some teeth," she said.

The US sanctions unveiled Thursday targeted the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, accused of spreading weapons of mass destruction (WMD), and the IRGC`s elite Quds Force, which was designated as a supporter of terrorism.

Three Iranian state-owned banks were also blacklisted, along with IRGC-controlled companies and the logistics arm of Iran`s defense ministry, as the United States stepped up a drive to squeeze Iran out of global banking.

Through ever-stricter sanctions, Washington has tried and failed to exert pressure on Iran ever since the US embassy hostage crisis that erupted following the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Asked if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would not simply scoff at the new sanctions Rice said: "we are trying to appeal to those (in Iran) who may understand that the path Iran is on" is dangerous.

"We have offered a pathway of negotiations," Rice said. "There is an easy road ahead for Iran if they want to take it."

She added: "I will meet my counterpart any time anywhere if they will simply suspend their programs."
sections: Politics, World News