UNITED NATIONS — Six world powers reached agreement yesterday on a package of new sanctions against Iran, including an embargo on arms exports and financial restrictions on more individuals and companies associated with Tehran’s nuclear and missile programmes, many linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.Their draft resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, expresses concern at “the proliferation risks presented by the Iranian nuclear programme.” It reiterates the demand by the Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency that Tehran suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used to produce nuclear energy or nuclear weapons.

The governments of the five permanent Security Council nations — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — and Germany gave the green light yesterday morning to the draft resolution hammered out by their ambassadors.

“We have an agreement and I will introduce a text on behalf of the six,” Britain’s UN Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry said after a meeting of ambassadors from the six countries. “It’s a text which is our suggestions. It’s not take it or leave it.”

Acting US Ambassador Alejandro Wolff called it “a good text,” saying it is an “incremental step” in getting Iran to suspend its nuclear-related activities.

The full 15-member Security Council then met so the draft resolution could be presented to the 10 non-permanent council nations, who are elected for two-year terms and have been left out of negotiations. They will need time to consider the text.

The current council president, South Africa’s UN Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, said experts would meet yesterday afternoon and next Tuesday if needed, but the full council will not discuss Iran again until next Wednesday.

“We anticipate that the voting would happen maybe well into next week,” Kumalo said Wednesday.

The agreement by the five veto-wielding permanent members will be a strong signal of the unity of the key nations on the UN’s most powerful body — and a sign that they want to send a united message to Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.

“We would like to see the entire council on board,” Wolff said. “Our goal is to do this as early as possible.”

In December, the Security Council voted unanimously to impose limited sanctions against Iran for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment. It ordered all countries to stop supplying Iran with materials and technology that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programmes and to freeze assets of 10 key Iranian companies and 12 individuals related to those programmes.

The council said it would consider further nonmilitary sanctions if Iran refused to suspend enrichment. Iran’s response was to accelerate its enrichment programme.

Iran insists its enrichment programme is peaceful and aimed solely at producing nuclear energy, but the US, European nations and the UN nuclear watchdog are concerned that Iran’s goal is to produce nuclear weapons.

The modest package of new measures in the new draft would freeze the assets of 15 additional individuals and 13 additional organisations and companies, according to the proposed list in the annex to the resolution.

Seven of the individuals are members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and three of the organisations are affiliated with the elite military corps, which oversees vital Iranian interests, including oil and natural gas installations and the nation’s missile arsenal, according to the annex.

The proposed list includes the Revolutionary Guard’s Deputy Commander Brig. Gen. Morteza; the chief of the joint staff, Vice Adm. Ali Akbar Ahmadian; ground forces commander Brig. Gen. Mohammad Reza Zahedi and four other top officers.

Wolff had called the issue of the Revolutionary Guards one of “the trickiest” in drafting the resolution. Russia had raised concerns that mentioning the Revolutionary Guard would amount to censuring the entire institution, so the proposed annex singles out specific companies.

Under the draft, Iran would be banned from supplying, selling or transferring “any arms or related material” and all countries would be prohibited from buying Iranian weapons.

The proposed resolution does not ban arms imports to Iran, but calls on all nations “to exercise vigilance and restraint” in supplying tanks, combat aircraft and other heavy weapons.

In the financial area, it calls on all governments and financial institutions not to make any new commitments “of grants, financial assistance, or concessional loans” to the Iranian government.

There is no travel ban, but all countries would be asked to exercise “vigilance and restraint” on the entry or transit through their territory of the individuals whose assets have been frozen. The draft would also require all countries to report the transit or entry of any of these people to the Security Council committee monitoring sanctions against Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday warned the West that it would deepen the rift with his country by imposing more UN sanctions.

“You are wrong if you think you can sit and draft ... something in order to isolate the Iranian nation,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech to several thousand people in the Iranian city of Yazd.

“Not only are you unable to hurt Iran, but you would further isolate yourselves and make yourselves more hated,” he added.

The draft resolution stresses that Iran’s verified suspension of its enrichment programme “would contribute to a diplomatic, negotiated solution that guarantees Iran’s nuclear programme is for exclusively peaceful purposes.”

It “underlines the willingness of the international community to work positively for such a solution” and “encourages Iran ... to re-engage with the international community and with the IAEA, and stresses that such engagement will be beneficial to Iran.”

As in the December resolution, the draft asks IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei to report to the council in 60 days on whether Iran has suspended its enrichment activities.