MOSCOW, April 10 (Xinhua) -- The reports that the United States plans to launch strikes against Iranian underground facilities by U.S. media were "exaggerated", a visiting U.S. senator said here on Monday.

    U.S. Senate Republican Majority Leader Bill Frist said at a news conference that the U.S. media have been circulating too many exaggerated reports concerning the use of military force in Iran.

    Frist said that the United States would like to continue cooperation with Russia in making the further necessary diplomatic efforts to deal with Iran's dangerous nuclear ambitions.

    However, Iran had violated the nonproliferation treaty and had secretly been running programs to develop nuclear weapons for 20 years, Frist said, the nuclear issue was currently being discussed at the UN Security Council.

    According to Frist, both the Russian and U.S. leaders stated that the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran would be in no one's interests.

    The U.S. White House also reiterated on Monday that it wants to settle Iran's nuclear crisis through diplomacy.

    Recently, mass media quoted unidentified current and former U.S. officials as reporting that the Pentagon and CIA planners have been exploring possible targets, such as the uranium enrichment plant at Natanz and the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan, Iran.

    An article published by the latest issue of the New Yorker magazine asserts that the Pentagon presented the White House this winter with an option to use bunker-buster nuclear bombs against Iran's underground nuclear site. Enditem