World powers to discuss Iran's nuclear defiance

BERLIN, Sep 7 (Reuters) Senior diplomats from six world powers meet in the German capital today to discuss what to do with Iran after it ignored a UN Security Council deadline to freeze its nuclear enrichment programme.

The negotiators from Germany and the five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- were expected to consider the possibility of imposing sanctions on the Islamic republic for continuing to enrich uranium past the Aug. 31 deadline, diplomats said.

Declining to give details about the talks, the first such meeting since the deadline expired, US Assistant Secretary of State Daniel Fried told reporters in Berlin he had ''no doubt they will be very substantive and very serious''.

Diplomats from several countries to be represented at the talks told Reuters on condition of anonymity that the United States hoped to use the meeting to persuade Russia and China that it was time to increase pressure on Iran by preparing to ask the UN Security Council to consider sanctions.

''Washington believes it's time to consider sanctions and the EU3 (France, Britain and Germany) also see no signs that Iran is willing to stop enriching uranium. But it's going to be a hard sell for Russia and China,'' a European Union diplomat said.

Diplomats said Russia and China would probably want to know the outcome of a planned meeting between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani before discussing possible sanctions.

Referring to UN Security Council resolution 1696 passed on July 31, Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph, the top US non-proliferation official, told reporters that the Council had already struck the ''fundamental bargain'' by agreeing that sanctions should be the next step if Iran continued enriching.

But Russia and China have made it clear that they dislike the idea of sanctions and question whether Tehran really poses a nuclear threat to the world as the United States and EU believe.

Tehran rejects Western accusations that it is trying to develop the capability to produce atomic weapons and insists it only wants nuclear fuel to peacefully generate electricity.

EU-IRAN MEETING? The Solana-Larijani meeting was originally planned for Vienna on Wednesday but was postponed at the last minute, EU diplomats said.

Iranian state television reported that the meeting would take place today in Spain but Solana's office said he had no plans to travel there.

EU diplomats said the meeting between Larijani and Solana was aimed at finding out if there was a chance Iran might halt enrichment work and begin negotiations on an offer of economic and political incentives the six powers made to Iran in June.

Tehran has said it was willing to discuss the offer but not on condition that it suspend its nuclear fuel programme.

Germany, which has been the most reluctant of the Western powers negotiating with Iran to consider economic sanctions, made it clear that Berlin was losing patience with Tehran.

''We won't close the door to negotiations but we the international community won't stand by and watch as Iran harms the rules of the U.N. nuclear authorities,'' Chancellor Angela Merkel told German lawmakers.

The UN nuclear watchdog said in a report last week that Iran has not been fully cooperating with its inspectors and has pressed ahead with enrichment, a process of purifying uranium for use in nuclear power plants or atomic weapons.

Merkel made clear that military action against Iran was not an option. Washington has not ruled this out as a last-resort alternative should negotiations or sanctions fail to sway Iran.

REUTERS DH PM0635