Six powers to meet Monday on Iran nuclear program

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Six major powers are to meet Monday in Washington for fresh talks on how to make Iran give up its contested uranium enrichment activities, a top US diplomatic official said Friday.

The State Department's number three Nicholas Burns said foreign ministry officials of the six -- the five UN Security Council permanent members plus Germany -- would review a proposed third UN sanctions resolution against Iran.

"We will review our strategy (launched at the United Nations) in New York, the pace of the resolution," Burns told reporters.

The six powers want Iran to stop enriching uranium, a process which they suspect Tehran aims to use to develop nuclear weapons. Iran insists it is only seeking nuclear power for civilian purposes.

Britain's and France's UN ambassadors on Thursday formally submitted to the Security Council members the text of a resolution for new sanctions, which they hope to see passed as soon as possible.

The proposed sanctions include economic and trade restrictions and a travel ban against officials involved in the nuclear program.

The five permanent council members are Britain, the United States, France, China and Russia.

The UN atomic watchdog said Friday it had made "quite good progress" in its long-running investigation into Iran's disputed nuclear drive, but was still not in a position to offer a verdict on Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) complained that Iran was continuing to defy UN demands to halt uranium enrichment and had supplied only patchy details to IAEA inspectors.

It also said Iran had started developing faster and more efficient centrifuges to produce enriched uranium, which can be used to make the fissile material for a bomb.

US National Security spokeswoman Kate Starr earlier said the United States was "disappointed" with Iran and would continue to push for more sanctions.

In Tehran, top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili said further sanctions would be a "disgrace," arguing that the report proved that accusations that it wanted nuclear weapons were baseless.