U.S. officials to go to China to push shunning Iran

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior U.S. officials said on Thursday they will travel to China in August to push Beijing to abide by international sanctions on Iran.

Chinese companies have been pursuing trade with Iran despite the threat of U.S. sanctions and a June United Nations Security Council resolution imposing more punitive measures on Tehran over its nuclear program, the officials told a House of Representatives committee.

"China is of concern to us," said Robert Einhorn, special adviser for nonproliferation and arms control at the State Department.

"We need for them to enforce the Security Council resolution," he said, noting China was a member of the council that agreed new measures to press Iran, including action against Iranian banks and shipping lines.

China should not "backfill" by doing more deals with Iran while "responsible countries are distancing themselves from Iran," Einhorn said.

Joseph Christoff, head of the Government Accountability Office's international affairs and trade department, told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that Chinese companies are aggressively investing in Iran's energy sector despite the threat of sanctions.

Einhorn said he and Dan Glaser, the Treasury Department's deputy assistant secretary for terrorist financing, would be going to China in August.

Glaser said they would travel to South Korea and Japan next week as part of a plan to visit countries in Asia, the Middle East and South America to urge governments and companies to cut business ties with Iran.

The aim is to get Iran to halt its nuclear work, which Washington believes is aimed at making a bomb. Iran says the work is aimed at generating electricity.

Einhorn said the State Department was reviewing past activity that could have triggered penalties under the U.S. Iran sanctions law first passed in the mid-1990s.

He said officials had identified fewer than 10 cases dating from before President Barack Obama took office which appeared "problematic".

Once companies are determined to be violators, the U.S. law requires sanctions such as denial of Export-Import Bank financing. But U.S. lawmakers have complained that no sanctions were ever imposed under the law, which they have strengthened to squeeze Iran's banks and fuel imports.

(Reporting by Susan Cornwell; editing by Mohammad Zargham)