The foreign ministers of six major powers will meet in a bid to map out a common strategy to force Iran to halt nuclear fuel work.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will host her counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia as well as European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, at a working dinner that will focus on Tehran's rejection of repeated UN demands to halt uranium enrichment.
The meeting will coincide with continuing bargaining in the 15-member UN Security Council on a Franco-British draft resolution that would legally require Iran to freeze all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.
But Tehran yesterday vowed it would refuse to comply with such a resolution, warning the diplomatic crisis was heading toward a "confrontation".
French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a joint call for a tough UN stance Sunday, saying the Security Council must adopt "a resolution making obligatory the requests of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), notably the suspension of uranium enrichment," according to the French president's office.
US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton told reporters Saturday that the ministers would "talk about the longer-term policy that we need to pursue to stop Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability" at Monday's meeting.
Western powers suspect Iran is using its civilian atomic programme as a cover to develop nuclear weapons. But Iran insists its aims are peaceful and claims it has the right to pursue uranium enrichment as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Agencies