INTERVIEW - Iran faces more sanctions if it defies world - UK

By Adrian Croft

PORT OF SPAIN (Reuters) - Iran can't divide the international community and will inevitably face more sanctions if it defies the world over its nuclear programme, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Friday.

A vote by the U.N. nuclear watchdog to rebuke Iran for building a uranium enrichment plant in secret "should send a very clear warning to Iran that it is not going to be able to divide the international community," Miliband told Reuters in an interview at a Commonwealth summit in Trinidad and Tobago.

The 25-3 vote was significant because so many countries had decided it was vital to stand up for the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, Miliband said.

"Iran needs to understand the strength of feeling that has gone into the vote today," he said.

Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons, saying its atomic energy programme is only for peaceful purposes.

Major powers have followed a strategy of seeking to talk to Iran about its nuclear programme while dangling the threat of more sanctions if it does not stop enriching uranium.

Miliband said there was "real willingness to treat Iran as a normal country if it behaves like a normal country but also recognition that if it flouts the will of the international community then the sanctions track is inevitable."

Russia and China backed Friday's decision but it was unclear if the West could persuade them to support tough sanctions against Iran, something they have long prevented at the Security Council.