(Adds appeal from lawmaker over missing former FBI agent) By Sue Pleming WASHINGTON, Jan 13 (Reuters) - U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday the Obama administration would take no options off the table when dealing with Iran but that a policy review was being done to tackle Tehran's nuclear plans differently. "We will pursue a new, perhaps different approach," Clinton told the Senate hearing needed to confirm her as the next secretary of state. "What we have tried has not worked." Pressed about whether the review included opening up a diplomatic presence in Iran, which the Bush administration decided to do in principle but did not ultimately go ahead with, Clinton said this was part of the policy review. "These are matters that are part of our policy review. We will turn to them with great diligence and attention," she said, without providing any timeline. "No option is off the table," she told the Senate hearing, which usually refers to the possibility of military action. The Bush administration, together with its allies, has pursued several rounds of U.N. sanctions against Iran in a bid to get it to give up sensitive nuclear work and Clinton indicated this approach would continue. "We will do everything we can pursue through diplomacy, through the use of sanctions, through creating better coalitions with countries that we believe also have a big stake in preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear weapon power," said Clinton. Pressed whether and when the United States would directly engage Iran, Clinton said Washington wanted to consult with its allies before making any decisions over how to proceed. But, without giving details, she promised an attitude toward engagement with Iran "that might bear fruit." "We have no illusions, Mr. Chairman, that even with a new administration looking to try to engage Iran in a way that might influence its behavior, that we can predict the results. But the president-elect is committed to that course and we will pursue it," she said. Florida Sen. Bill Nelson, a Democrat, pressed Clinton to take up the case of a missing ex-FBI agent whom he said was being held in a "secret prison" in Iran. The former FBI agent, Robert Levinson, has been missing since March 2007 when he went on a business trip to Iran's Gulf island of Kish. The Iranian authorities have said repeatedly they have no information about Levinson, whose wife and seven children live in Florida. But his wife, Christine Levinson, believes he is still alive. Clinton did not dispute that Levinson might be in a secret Iranian prison and urged Iran to free him. The Bush administration has said consistently it has been told by Iran that it has no information about Levinson's whereabouts. "It would be an extraordinary opportunity for the government of Iran to make such a gesture -- to permit contact, to release him, to make it clear that there is a new attitude in Iran as we believe there will be with the Obama administration towards engagement," said Clinton. (Reporting by Sue Pleming, editing by David Alexander and David Wiessler)
Iranian worshipers shout anti-Israel and anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration after Friday prayers in Tehran January 9, 2009. The red words on the poster read: "Gazza is Ashura today". Ashura is ...
