Gordon Brown must do everything in his power to dissuade George Bush from launching military action against Iran should the US decide to do so, a report has urged.

The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) warns that open conflict between Washington and Tehran over the latter's nuclear ambitions is "fraught with risks".

Commenting on the report, a Foreign Office spokesman said its main assumption – that military action from the US against Iran was increasingly likely – was both "hypothetical and unfounded".

But the thinktank says that preventing war between Iran and the United States could define Mr Brown's premiership to the same extent that backing military action against Saddam Hussein in Iraq did for his predecessor Tony Blair.

In the report - Progressive Foreign Policy - co-author David Mepham explains that the prime minister should instead back targeted UN sanctions if Iran continues to ignore the security council.

And the head of the IPPR's international programme writes that in this event sustained economic pressure must be matched with "serious and creative diplomacy", despite the fact that unconditional negotiations between the US and Iran have not taken place since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Mr Mepham, who acknowledges that Mr Brown was correct to stress the importance of the UK's special relationship with the US, said: "The first two months of Gordon Brown's premiership have seen a welcome change of tone in British foreign policy.

"But it is looking increasingly possible that the US will take military action against Iran in an attempt to halt its nuclear programme. Such action would be disastrous, making a fragile and dangerous situation immeasurably worse."

He goes on to say: "Gordon Brown's government should pursue a more creative and calibrated policy towards Iran that offers a realistic prospect of de-escalating the current crisis, not least by trying to influence the thinking of the US administration before it is too late.

"If the Americans are prepared to negotiate with the North Koreans on nuclear issues, surely it is makes sense for them to talk to Iran."

Today's report comes after Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last month claimed that Iran now had 3,000 centrifuges enriching uranium.

Tehran insists that its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful and exclusively for providing civilian energy.

Responding to the report's conclusions, a spokesman at the Foreign Office reiterated that the UK government "favoured a non-military solution to this problem and this is what we are working to achieve".

"We are working to resolve this diplomatically and the American government has also expressed a desire for a diplomatic solution," the spokesman added.
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