Top senators agree on expanding sanctions

Sens. Christopher J. Dodd, D-Conn., chairman of the Senate Banking Committee and Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the panel's senior Republican, announced the accord.

Its two principal goals, Dodd said in a statement, are to authorize states and local governments to divest from companies that do business with Iran's oil and gas sectors and cut off shipment through other countries of sanctioned technology.

Shelby, in a statement, said "it is imperative that the United States avail itself of every possible measure to ensure that Iran changes its behavior."

The two senior senators called Iran a threat to U.S. interests and allies.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has shrugged off past U.S. sanctions against Iran, saying the country would not succumb to pressure. "Americans are not able to harm us," he said last October.

Recent tests of long-range missiles, still being analyzed by the Pentagon and American intelligence, indicate Iran is going ahead with an improved capacity to strike at U.S. interests and at Israel.

American authorities agree, however, that Iran has not yet perfected enrichment of uranium to be able to build nuclear wapons and attach a nuclear warhead to its missiles.

Iran, for its part, says its nuclear programs are designed to expand civilian power.

The Senate Banking Committee is scheduled to take up the bipartisan sanctions bill on Thursday.