President Bush is welcoming a resolution by the International Atomic Energy Agency demanding that Iran suspend nuclear fuel activities it resumed earlier this week.

President Bush says the resolution, drafted by Britain, France and Germany, is a "positive first step" and demonstrates the international community's growing resolve to confront Iran over its nuclear program.

"The world is coalescing around the notion that the Iranians should not have the means and the wherewithal to be able to develop a nuclear weapon," he said.

Mr. Bush was speaking with reporters at his Texas ranch where he was meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top officials.

Mr. Bush said the United States will work with Britain, France and Germany so that Iran hears what the president termed "a common voice" on nuclear matters.

Asked about the visa request for Iran's newly elected president to address the United Nations, Mr. Bush said the United States continues to investigate allegations that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad played a role in the taking of 52 hostages from the U.S. embassy in Tehran more than 25 years ago. But Mr. Bush noted that the United States is bound by an agreement to allow foreign dignitaries to enter the United States for official U.N. business, and that he "suspects" the Iranian leader will, in fact, come to the United States.