Italian Prime Minster Silvio Berlusconi doubts the success of sanctions imposed against Iran

Although Italy has participated in the sanctions, "I fear that sanctions will not bring success,'' Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper quoted Berlusconi as saying on Friday.

The Italian premier admitted that sanctions have in the past proven to only strengthen governments in countries such as Cuba.

"A gentle and circumspect approach would be more helpful,'' he told the newspaper.

Berlusconi identified Russia and China as countries that could pursue such an approach and said he had asked China's Premier Wen Jiabao "to use his influence in this direction.''

Russia and China have advocated for more diplomacy on Tehran's nuclear program, saying that sanctions should only serve as a tool to bring Iran to the negotiating table.

After the UN Security Council issued a resolution imposing a fourth round of sanctions on Iran in June, the United States and the European Union followed suit, imposing their own unilateral sanctions.

While the US possesses and has used nuclear weapons in the past, Washington, in a politically-motivated move, has imposed additional sanctions against the Islamic Republic, which does not possess nuclear weapons nor does it seek to develop such weapons.

Washington, which accuses Iran of pursuing a military agenda under its peaceful nuclear program, has refused to take a military option off the table should negotiations on the issue fail.

However, the United States was quick to dismiss the Tehran declaration, signed in mid-may according to which Tehran greed to ship 1,200 kilograms of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey to be exchanged for 120 kilograms of 20 percent enriched nuclear fuel rods.