PARIS, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- France has called on leading French companies to desist from investing in Iran, French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner has said.

    "We have already asked some of our major companies not to bid for any tenders in the country," the foreign minister who was speaking on RTL radio and LCI television, said Sunday adding the move was aimed at forcing Iran to stop its sensitive nuclear activities.

    In addition, the minister said that the European Union was considering its own set of economic sanctions against Iran in a bid to force the country to comply with the demands of the international community.

    For quite some time now, Iran has been at loggerhead with the international community over its nuclear program. The United States, its European allies and other world powers are accusing Iranian authorities of seeking nuclear weapons under the cover of civilian nuclear technology while on the other hand, Iran continues to insists that its nuclear program is aimed at helping the country meet its energy needs.

    So far negotiations and two sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to stop its uranium enrichment program, a process that can produce fuel for nuclear power plants and also material for making atomic weapons.

    Speaking recently on state television, president Ahmadinejad appeared to doubt the resolve of the international community to impose punitive measures against his country.

    "They talk of imposing sanctions on Iran, but they cannot do it," the president said.

    French President Nicolas Sarkozy is seen as taking a tougher stand on Iran than his predecessor Jacques Chirac. During his first major foreign policy speech last month, Sarkozy said that a diplomatic push by the international community was the only alternative to "an Iranian bomb or the bombing of Iran."