US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today the United States, European and Russian diplomats have a common goal to encourage Iran back to the bargaining table over its disputed nuclear program.
"We reconfirmed we will use available channels and the Security Council to try to achieve that goal," she said. Rice spoke following a breakfast meeting with her counterparts from Germany, Russia and the European Union.
The group reviewed Iran's compliance with a UN Security Council demand that it stop enriching uranium, a key step toward producing either nuclear power or a nuclear weapon.
The UN nuclear watchdog finalised a report that is to be released later today and is expected to formally confirm the Islamic republic's refusal to freeze enrichment.
Officials at the International Atomic Energy Agency said the report - by Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the Vienna-based agency - would say that Iran has expanded enrichment efforts instead of freezing them.
Such a finding would be a step towards the imposition of additional sanctions, but it is not clear yet whether UN Security Council members Russia and China will agree.
Iran has called for talks with the United States - but has not budged on council demands that it freezes its enrichment program.
Enriched to a low level, uranium is used to produce nuclear fuel but further enrichment makes it suitable for use in building an atomic bomb. The West claims the Islamic republic intends to build a bomb with enriched uranium. Iran says it merely wants to develop peaceful nuclear power.
In moderate remarks directed at Washington yesterday, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the dispute "has to be decided peacefully with the United States."
The UN is demanding an immediate and unconditional stop to uranium enrichment, after which European-led negotiations over an economic reward package might begin. Iran has long insisted it will not stop its nuclear activities as a condition for negotiations to start.
AP