CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia, one of the countries which ignored the United Nations to join the U.S.-led war in Iraq, said on Friday the Iran nuclear standoff would be an important test for the world body to show what it could do.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who alongside U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair committed forces to the Iraq war, said he supported the U.N. Security Council decision to intervene on Iran.

"This will be an interesting test for the United Nations," Howard told Australian radio.

"People who were critical of George Bush, myself and Tony Blair and others over Iraq because we didn't endlessly keep going back to the United Nations in 2003 now have an opportunity to see how effectively the United Nations will work," he said.

The U.N. Security Council is to take up the issue of Iran's nuclear research, which the West suspects is designed to give the country atomic bomb technology. Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian use only.

The United States says Iran is now its number one challenge, but says it has no plans to go to war in Iran.

Opponents of the Iraq war said the United Nations should have been given more time to solve the crisis over Iraq's suspected weapons of mass destruction before the U.S.-led military campaign to oust former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

No weapons of mass destruction have ever been found.

Howard said the Iran nuclear standoff was a "huge worry", and he fully supported the matter going to the U.N Security Council. Australia is a founding member of the United Nations but is not a member of the Security Council.

"I'm in favour of this matter going to the United Nations, I'm in favour of the United Nations exercising all the influence it can to bring about a change in Iran, and let's hope that it works," he said.

PARIS (Reuters) - France is looking for a political solution to the dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions rather than seeking to punish Tehran, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on French radio on Friday.

"Our goal is political, not at all punitive," he told RTL radio when asked whether France backed U.S. demands that the U.N. Security Council consider sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme.

Referring to a recent meeting with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, Douste-Blazy said "we made proposals, the hand (of compromise) is extended, negotiations are possible."

On Wednesday, Douste-Blazy criticised Iran for spurning chances to find a solution to the crisis and said France would assume its responsibilities as a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council.

Most diplomats expect the 15-national Security Council, which can impose sanctions, to issue a statement first urging Iran to comply with resolutions by the International Atomic Energy Agency's board (IAEA) that it halt all uranium enrichment activities.

Iran, which concealed its nuclear activities from the IAEA for 18 years, denies it is seeking to build a nuclear bomb and says it is being singled out unfairly over its nuclear activities compared to India, Pakistan and Israel.

Tehran says it wants civilian nuclear power to meet the needs of its booming economy.