PARIS - France is pressing for international sanctions strong enough to paralyse Iran over its nuclear policy, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in an interview in a weekly news magazine.

In the interview in l'Express magazine, Juppe reiterated France's belief that military intervention would cause "irreparable" damage and have "catastrophic  consequences" in the region.

Sanctions that hit Iran's central bank and oil exports, as the United States and Britain were starting to implement, were the way to go, said the minister, who acknowledged that things were moving less rapidly at wider international level.

"France is advocating sanctions on a scale that would paralyse the regime: freezing of central bank assets and an embargo on hydrocarbon (oil) exports," he said.

Seemingly alluding to efforts to agree such a move at the level of the 27-country European Union, Juppe said: "We want to reach a common position so that the pressure will be utmost. We cannot keep letting the Iranians take us for a ride."

Iran is facing a new wave of punitive measures after a United Nations nuclear watchdog report this month lent weight to suspicions that Iran has been developing a capability to make atomic bombs. Iran denies this, saying its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only.

The interview was conducted before the latest developments in Iran, where protesters on Tuesday stormed and ransacked the British embassy in Tehran.