The new effort to pressure Iran has been led by Europeans and the international atomic agency. The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to vote Monday on a resolution on Iran, the third that would impose economic sanctions for its continued refusal to stop enriching uranium for nuclear fuel.

The United States has been relegated to more of a behind-the-scenes role, largely because the December intelligence report left it with little leverage to continue confronting the Iranians. That assessment revealed a contentious debate within the government over how imminent a threat Iran pose— a division that raged in secret while the report was being prepared, and continues to this day. “The administration is in real disarray,” said David A. Kay, the nuclear specialist who led the fruitless search for unconventional weapons in Iraq after the invasion. “And the Europeans are picking up the ball.”

The wrangling in Washington spilled into the open when a declassified summary of the report, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, was made public. The White House argued that Iran remained a serious nuclear threat even if it was not working on a weapons design. But several allies said the report’s conclusion was too sweeping, and President Bush has made clear that he shares that view. Thomas Fingar, the deputy director of national intelligence for analysis who runs the National Intelligence Council, which produced the estimate, said “the vast majority of concerns” he had heard from abroad were, “ ‘Why would you say something that complicates our policy making?’ instead of ‘You have misinterpreted the evidence.’ “ At issue is how to judge whether a nuclear program is intended for military purposes.

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