iran tests its shahab 3 missile

Oil will finish higher tonight.
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IRAN'S latest missile tests show the threat posed by the Islamic republic is not "imaginary", US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today.

"It's evidence that the missile threat is not an imaginary one," Ms Rice told journalists at a news conference in the Bulgarian capital Sofia when asked about Iran's latest test of its Shahab-3 missile.

The Shahab-3 was among a broadside of nine missiles fired off early today from an undisclosed location in the Iranian desert, state-run Arabic channel Al-Alam and its English counterpart Press-TV reported.

The missile is capable of reaching Israel.

"It's time for Iranians to stop violating their Security Council obligations and start fulfilling them," Ms Rice said.

She was in Sofia to receive a medal for her role in obtaining the release a year ago of Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor jailed in Libya.

During her brief stop, Ms Rice met with Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin, Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev and President Georgy Parvanov.

Earlier, Washington had already condemned Iran's test of a missile that puts Israel within reach and warned the Islamic republic to abandon its ballistic missile program "immediately".

"Iran's development of ballistic missiles is a violation of United Nations Security Council resolutions and completely inconsistent with Iran's obligations to the world," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.

"The Iranians should stop the development of ballistic missiles, which could be used as a delivery vehicle for a potential nuclear weapon, immediately," he warned on the margins of the Group of Eight summit in Japan.