Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during a ceremony at the Natanz nuclear enrichment facility, 350 km (217 miles) south of Tehran, April 9, 2007. REUTERS/Caren Firouz/Files

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. military action against Iran remains an option even as the United States pursues diplomacy and sanctions to halt the country’s nuclear program, the Pentagon said on Wednesday.

“We are not taking any options off the table as we pursue the pressure and engagement tracks,” Pentagon Press Secretary Geoff Morrell said. “The president always has at his disposal a full array of options, including use of the military ... It is clearly not our preferred course of action but it has never been, nor is it now, off the table.”

Morrell was responding to reported comments by a top U.S. defense official who was quoted in Singapore as saying a strike on Iran was off the table in the near term.