European Union foreign ministers Monday gave their formal approval to a fresh, wide-reaching package of sanctions against Iran and called on the Islamic republic to urgently comply with its international obligations regarding its contested nuclear program.

In a joint statement, EU ministers voiced "serious and deepening concerns" over Iran 's nuclear program and the expansion of its uranium enrichment capacities and called on the regime to cooperate with international nuclear inspectors. Iran insists that its nuclear activities are for peaceful, civilian purposes.

The sanctions, seen as the toughest set of measures against Teheran since the EU's embargo on Iranian oil imports in July, is the latest effort by the 27-member bloc to bring Iran back to the negotiating table after half-a-year of deadlocked talks, and target financial institutions, trade, energy and shipping.

"The restrictive measures agreed today are aimed at affecting Iran 's nuclear program and revenues of the Iranian regime to fund its program and are not aimed at the Iranian people," the statement said.

One cornerstone of the latest measures is a ban on all financial transactions between European and Iranian banks, unless they relate to humanitarian aid. The Central Bank of Iran will face fresh restrictions and the export of materials and metals used for industrial or military purposes will be prohibited. New rules will seeks to curb the movement of Iranian oil tankers and cargos and impede the country's ship building capacities.

"The sanctions... are all part of a twin-track approach," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters. "We continue to both negotiate and to maintain the pressure." His German counterpart, Guido Westerwelle accused Teheran of "playing for time," and insisted that EU sanctions were having an impact on the regime's ability to fund its nuclear activities.

As she arrived for the talks in Luxembourg , the EU's Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton, who represents six major nations at international negotiations with Teheran, said she hoped for a breakthrough with Iran very soon. "I hope we will be able to make progress very soon," Baroness Ashton said at the start of the meeting. However, no new date for talks have been set, according to European diplomats.

Syria was also hit with a new round of sanctions on Monday, as the EU took more steps to curb the import of arms into Syria and prohibit any EU involvement in the transport of Syrian weapons. In addition, two firms and 28 individuals involved in the violent repression against the civilian population will face an asset ban and a travel freeze, bringing to 181 the number of people and 54 the companies on the EU's blacklist.

As ministers endorsed this nineteenth round of sanctions since the conflict in Syria began last march, they urged strong language to call on President Bashar Al-Assad to end the bloodshed in his country and condemned shelling by Syrian forces across the Turkish border.

"The EU warns against further militarization of the conflict," Baroness Ashton said. "We call on all states to refrain from delivering arms to Syria and to follow the EU in stopping the supplies that fuel the fighting."

Separately, the EU is also looking into ways to provide military training to an African-led mission to Mali , to restore rule of law in the north of the country after the military coup earlier this year.

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