Iran will cut oil exports to other EU countries if their "hostile actions" continue, the deputy oil minister who heads the state oil company said Monday, a day after Tehran halted sales to France and Britain.

Exports to Spain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Germany and the Netherlands would be stopped; Ahmed Qalebani was quoted as saying by Mehr news agency.

The top U.S. military commander said Sunday he believed it would be "premature" to take military action against Iran in response to its nuclear program, as Britain urged Israel to give the diplomatic route a chance to succeed.

U.S. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS" program that economic sanctions have to be given a chance to work, and the United States and its allies should be better prepared for a military option.

Iran has halted its limited oil sales to France and Britain in retaliation for a phased EU ban on Iranian oil that is yet to take full effect, the oil ministry said on Sunday.

"Oil sales to British and French companies have ceased," spokesman Ali Reza Nikzad Rahbar said in a statement on the ministry's official website.

Iran may be preparing to expand its nuclear program at an underground plant near the city of Qom, a diplomat has told the BBC, just days ahead of a visit by United Nations nuclear inspectors.

Iran appears to be poised to install thousands of new centrifuges at the underground site in the northern city, a Vienna-based diplomat told the British broadcaster late Friday.

Iran's nuclear ambitions could trigger "a new Cold War" more perilous than that between the West and the Soviet Union, British Foreign Secretary warned on Friday.

William Hague said Iran obtaining a nuclear bomb would spark an atomic arms race between rival Middle Eastern nations that could be more dangerous than the original Cold War because the old "safety mechanisms" are missing.

Britain and the Holy See on Wednesday called for an end to violence in Syria and underlined the role of Christians in the Middle East after a British delegation met with Pope Benedict XVI.

The Vatican and Britain in a joint statement appealed for "an immediate end to violence in Syria," and stressed "the need for cooperation to overcome the present crisis" at a joint press conference in the Holy See.

Jordan has given assurances to Britain that Islamist cleric Abu Qatada, once dubbed an aide to Osama bin Laden, will get a "fair" trial if London extradites him to the kingdom, a government official said on Wednesday.

"Jordan has reassured British Home Office Minister James Brokenshire that it is committed to protecting the legal rights of Jordanian citizen Abu Qatada," the official told Agence France Presse.

Britain on Monday said Western nations were unlikely to join a U.N.-Arab peacekeeping force proposed by the Arab League to end the violence in Syria, as Germany welcomed the Arab League's "important" role and Italy backed the Arab suggestion.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for urgent talks on the League’s, but said Western nations were unlikely to join the force.

Britain's biggest selling newspaper The Sun was in crisis Saturday after police arrested five journalists at the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid and three public officials over bribery allegations.

Publisher News International said Murdoch had given a "personal assurance" that The Sun would not face the same fate as its sister paper the News of the World, which he closed in July amid a scandal over phone hacking.

U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon on Friday called on Argentina and Britain to avoid "escalation" of a dispute over the Falkland islands with the 30th anniversary of their war over the territory looming.

Ban's appeal came as Argentina's Foreign Minister Hector Timerman accused Britain of accumulating the "biggest" military power in the South Atlantic, including nuclear arms.