Iran looks certain to face further United Nations sanctions unless it agrees to suspend its nuclear enrichment activities, following a meeting of representatives from the world's major powers in London today.
Officials from Britain, France and Germany - known as the E3 group of European states - met with the US, China and Russia to discuss the next steps in dealing with the Islamic Republic's suspected efforts to obtain nuclear weapons.
They agreed to finalise a text for a third UN resolution to go before the Security Council unless reports due within the next few weeks show positive developments in the stand-off with Tehran.
Pressure from Britain, the US and France for tougher sanctions on Tehran has previously been blocked by the other two permanent members of the Security Council, Russia and China, which are able to prevent UN action by wielding their veto.
But today's unanimous agreement to prepare a third resolution suggests that Moscow and Beijing are now ready to see the economic screws tightened on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Political directors will meet again for another "E3 plus 3" meeting on November 19th to assess progress following publication of the reports by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Mohamed ElBaradei and EU High Representative Javier Solana.
The reports could lead to the third resolution going before the Security Council for a vote.
Officials agreed today to ask Dr Solana to seek a further meeting with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and report back to within the coming weeks.
Iran has consistently rejected claims that it is seeking a military nuclear capability, insisting its uranium enrichment programme is for civil energy purposes only. It has failed to comply with earlier UN resolutions calling for the suspension of enrichment activities.
The Western powers agreed on September 28th to delay asking for tighter sanctions, after Iran announced it would talk to the IAEA. The latest round of talks ended yesterday in Tehran, with Iranian officials claiming satisfaction on both sides.
In September, Dr ElBaradei praised Iran's co-operation so far, but called on Tehran for greater transparency about its activities, including experiments allegedly linking enrichment and missile technology, before the end of the year.
In a statement issued following today's meeting, the Foreign Office said: "Recalling the statement issued by Foreign Ministers and the EU High Representative on September 28th, (the political directors) looked forward to the forthcoming report from the director general of the IAEA ahead of the next meeting of the IAEA Board of Governors. They asked the EU High Representative to seek a further meeting with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator and to report back to E3 plus 3 ministers.
"Political directors agreed to meet on November 19th to assess those reports. They reiterated their commitment to negotiate a long-term solution to the Iranian nuclear issue and urged Iran to take up their offer of negotiation made by the E3 plus 3 in June 2006 and repeated since then.
"Recalling the ministerial statement of September 28th, political directors agreed to finalise a text for a third UN Security Council Sanctions Resolution with the intention of bringing it to a vote in the UN Security Council unless the November reports of Dr Solana and Dr ElBaradei show a positive outcome of the efforts."