Brussels, 04/02/2005 (Agence Europe) - With Germany, France and the United Kingdom (EU-3) continuing their negotiations with Iran on behalf of the European Union to obtain the definitive suspension of its uranium enrichment activities and the dismantling of its plants, in exchange for a broad trade and cooperation agreement, new information to the headquarters of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of Vienna on Thursday has raised fears of renewed political tension between Washington and Teheran. According to Western diplomats, the United States has informed the EU that Iran failed to observe the Paris Agreement of 15 November, in which it undertook to suspend all enrichment activities. Teheran is said to have recently carried out quality controls on centrifuges capable of enriching uranium for energy or military use. Le Monde reports that John Bolton, American under-secretary of state for arms and international security, informed the EU-3 on 28 January that Iran had recently carried out “maintenance work” on centrifuges on the Natanz site in the south of the country. This information was announced just hours after President Bush's State of the Union speech declaring that the Americans were “working closely with European allies to make it clear to the Iranian regime that it must give up its uranium enrichment programme and any plutonium reprocessing”. “[Teheran must] end its support for terror”, which destabilises the entire Middle Eastern region, said George W. Bush. Visiting London on Friday, American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, attending a press conference with the British head of diplomacy Jack Straw, said that the issue of the use of force against Iran was “not on the agenda”. Ms Rice also spoke of her hopes for success in the negotiations carried out by the EU-3, stressing the similarity of opinion between the Europeans and Americans on the Iranian dossier. “We are completely united in the view that Teheran should not use the cover of civil nuclear technology to develop nuclear weapons”, she added.