WASHINGTON • Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., and Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., criticized Monday's announcement that a deadline for an agreement from nuclear talks with Iran has been pushed back to next year, and they said the Congress should pursue tougher economic sanctions.

The delay to next July for a resolution in the on-going talks gives Iran further relief against sanctions and will allow it to continue on its nuclear program, Kirk and other critics say. Secretary of State John Kerry announced Monday that the deadline would be extended.

"We have made real and substantial progress and we have seen new ideas surface," Kerry told reporters in Geneva. "Today we are closer to a deal that will make the whole world, especially our allies in Israel and the Gulf, safer."

That news raises the possibility that when Republicans take control of the Senate in January that the new majority will push for tougher sanctions on Iran. The U.S. and its allies want to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but the two sides have not been able to come to an agreement that would satisfy both sides.