UN cancels Congo trip, more Iran talks planned

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council has cancelled a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo as envoys from five key members planned further talks on a new round of sanctions against Iran, diplomats said on Friday.

The official reason for the cancellation was the ash cloud from an Icelandic volcano that has caused air travel chaos across Europe, as announced by a U.N. spokesman.

But several diplomats said on condition of anonymity that intensifying talks on a fourth round of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program also played a role.

"The Americans are very keen to get a resolution finished this month," said one diplomat familiar with the negotiations. "It's no coincidence that he (six) are meeting again Monday. It was a consideration in the decision to cancel the trip."

Diplomats from the five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia -- and Germany are meeting almost daily as they struggle to agree on what punitive measures could be included in a resolution to put to the 15-nation Security Council.

The six envoys have been discussing a U.S. draft proposal, first circulated weeks ago, that provides for a fourth round of sanctions on Iran for its refusal to stop uranium enrichment. The West accuses Tehran of seeking to produce atomic arms but Tehran says it aims only to generate electricity.

The U.S. draft proposes new curbs on Iranian banking, a full arms embargo, tougher measures against Iranian shipping, moves against members of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and firms they control and a ban on new investments in Iran's energy sector.

Western diplomats familiar with the talks said they are far from an agreement and the negotiations could drag on until June. The Chinese, and to a lesser extent the Russians, are pushing the Americans and Europeans to soften the draft.

PROBLEMS WITH CONGO

It was not immediately clear if the Security Council would attempt to reschedule the cancelled April 17-20 trip to Congo.

Security Council members had planned to meet in Kinshasa with Congolese President Joseph Kabila, who has been pressing for a swift withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers from the vast central African country with the approach of the 50th anniversary of independence this year and elections in 2011.

Kabila wants the Congo peacekeeping mission, known as MONUC, to start withdrawing within months and the last blue helmet out in 2011. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has proposed a slower three-year phased withdrawal.

Council members had hoped to press him in person to allow a more gradual exit of MONUC, which diplomats and U.N. peacekeeping officials say is vital to maintaining peace in the country's turbulent east.

Since its establishment in 1999, MONUC has become the world body's largest force with 22,000 troops and police, and assumed many of the responsibilities of the Congolese state, which was torn apart by a 1998-2003 war that killed millions.

However, local and Rwandan Hutu rebels still roam much of the two Kivu provinces in the east. Ugandan rebels continue to wage a campaign of terror in the remote northeast and a new rebellion has emerged in recent months in Equateur province.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; Editing by Eric Walsh)

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