BEIRUT -- As Iran moved to enrich uranium to a higher level of purity and build new nuclear-fuel plants, U.S. and French defense officials suggested Monday that sanctions were needed to force Tehran to curb its nuclear program.

Speaking in Paris, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates again dismissed military action, but said that given Iran's rejections of Western proposals, the international community needed to apply some pressure.

"We must still try and find a peaceful way to resolve this issue. The only path that is left to us at this point, it seems to me, is that pressure track," Mr. Gates said, "but it will require all of the international community to work together."

French Defense Minister Herve Morin on Monday said the international community has made efforts to engage in peaceful dialogue with Iran involving "full transparency." He added: "It's led to nothing, and we note, sadly, that we must start a dialogue with the international community that will lead to sanctions if Iran doesn't stop."

Iran's envoy to the United Nations' nuclear watchdog agency said his nation would begin enriching fuel today for a Tehran medical reactor, amid heightened international concern over Iran's atomic research program and rising discord within its political system.

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said Monday that Iran had informed inspectors that the country intended to begin further refining its uranium as of today. "We have invited agency inspectors to be present," he said.

Iranian officials trumpeted an array of new nuclear and military ambitions Monday ahead of Thursday's anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, traditionally a nationalistic pro-government festival that Iran's opposition movement is vowing to convert to an anti-government rally.

Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, announced that Tehran informed the IAEA that it intended to launch construction of 10 new nuclear-fuel plants in the Persian calendar year starting March 2010. Iranian military officials revealed plans to build new military planes, aerial drones and anti-aircraft missiles.

Experts and international inspectors have concluded that Iran's nuclear program has been stagnant in the months since the country's domestic political crisis erupted following the June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Until now, Iran has produced reactor-grade 3.5 percent-enriched uranium and has managed to build only one functioning nuclear-fuel plant near the town of Natanz.

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