Is the Bush administration backing away from war with Iran?

Negroponte: Iran Nuclear Claims Exaggerated

"According to the experts that I consult, achieving — getting 164 centrifuges to work is still a long way from having the capacity to manufacture sufficient fissile material for a nuclear weapon," Negroponte said. "It could still be a matter of years. ... In fact our assessment is that the prospects of an Iranian weapon are still a number of years off, and probably into the next decade."

Rice says US will use varied means to stop Iran

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday the United States would use political, economic and other measures to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon.

"The issue here is to mobilize the international community, to unify the international community around the view that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. That is agreed," Rice said.

She said the United States had a number of "diplomatic tools at our disposal to persuade the Iranians that they really need to come back to negotiations."