"There is no reason for people to think that the president is about to attack Iran ... we need to make that clear," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Asked by reporters if she was sure, she replied: "I'm positive of that, and we're pursuing a diplomatic track."
The United States has sharply escalated its rhetoric against the Islamic Republic in recent weeks as Tehran has continued to flout international calls to rein in its uranium enrichment programme.
Last week Washington slapped new sanctions on the country's Revolutionary Guards, accusing it of spreading weapons of mass destruction, and its elite Quds Force, which was designated as a supporter of terrorism.
The fresh sanctions on Tehran and the escalating US warnings have fuelled comparisons to the weeks and months before the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
But Perino, who last week said that Iran posed the US its greatest security challenge, said yesterday that President George W Bush did not want people to fear that the US administration was about to attack the Islamic Republic.
"Of course he doesn't want people to fear that. He said what he is doing is pursuing a diplomatic track," she told reporters.
"He believes it's important for him to pursue every possible diplomatic means in order to persuade Iran to stop its pursue of a nuclear weapon." - DDNEWS
