Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered an end to short-notice International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspections of his country’s nuclear programme as of Sunday, and called for ”preparations” to kick-start uranium enrichment work, which makes what can be nuclear reactor fuel or atom bomb material.

In Washington, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Teheran to “heed this clear message” from the IAEA.

US President George W. Bush said: “This important step sends a clear message to the regime in Iran that the world will not permit the Iranian regime to gain nuclear weapons.”

The resolution by the 35-nation IAEA board of governors in Vienna called on the agency’s chief Mohamed ElBaradei “to report to the Security Council” steps “required of Iran.”

These include suspending “all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities” and cooperating fully with IAEA inspectors.

The resolution passed by 27-3, with five abstentions.

In a concession to Iran ally and key trade partner Russia, it put off any UN Security Council action for at least a month, to give time for diplomacy until the next IAEA meeting in March.

But in a last-minute text change it mandated the board to ”immediately thereafter (the March 6 board meeting) convey” a report and assessment by ElBaradei on Iran to the Security Council.

The transmission of this report would clear the way for the Council to take action that is expected first to be a statement urging Iranian cooperation, with sanctions a possibility later on.

US ambassador to the IAEA Gregory Schulte said the idea was to get Iran to “choose a course of cooperation and negotiation over a course of confrontation,” and not to punish Teheran.

The IAEA has been investigating Iran for three years on US charges that it is hiding nuclear weapons development but has reached no conclusions.

Iran’s cooperation is “overdue,” the resolution said, in calling on Teheran “to help the agency clarify possible activities which could have a military nuclear dimension.”

The resolution culminated two years of US efforts to bring Iran before the Security Council.

“The strong majority in favor of the resolution, representing all regions of the world, underscores the concern of the entire international community about Iran’s nuclear program,” Rice said.

Nicholas Burns, US undersecretary of state for political affairs, said: “What is significant is that the vote represents the voice of the entire world community. You have the entire European Union, Russia, China, India, Brazil and from the Arab world Egypt and Yemen,” voting for referral.

The five permanent Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- and Germany had closed ranks over the resolution. Unlike the IAEA, the Security Council has enforcement powers.

Cuba, Syria and Venezuela voted against the move, while Algeria, Belarus, Indonesia, Libya and South Africa abstained.

“Iran is very much isolated as a result of the vote,” Burns said.

Still, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organisation, Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, said Iran was willing to negotiate.

“We have not left the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) and we will not leave the NPT (which authorizes IAEA monitoring of nuclear programs). We are ready to negotiate with every country with the exception of Israel and which recognises our right,” he said.

Iran insists its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to generate electricity.

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin said: “We urge Iran to respond constructively to the call by the IAEA’s governing council to cooperate fully in solving outstanding problems” and to fully suspend uranium enrichment.

Chinese ambassador Wu Hailong said his country did not see the resolution as allowing for UN punitive action, but Schulte said it incorporated a September IAEA resolution that found Iran in non-compliance with the NPT for hiding nuclear activities for almost two decades, a finding that requires the current report to the Security Council.

Moscow hopes the crisis can be defused without the Council imposing sanctions and is sponsoring a compromise proposal for Iran to carry out uranium enrichment in Russia to keep Iran from mastering this “breakout” technology for making atomic weapons.

But senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Javad Vaidi said Teheran might reject the Russian proposal outright.