BERLIN - Six world powers may not agree to new measures against Iran's nuclear program after a meeting in Berlin on Tuesday, but the talks themselves show Tehran that the group still wants it to halt uranium enrichment, top diplomats said.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he could not predict if the meeting would produce a resolution on possible new sanctions, but stressed that the gathering of the foreign ministers of permanent U.N. Security Council members Britain, the U.S., France, Russia and China -- plus Germany -- sent a strong message.
"The fact that Russia and China are here today is a positive sign," Steinmeier said in an interview early Tuesday on Germany's ARD television, noting that "Iran has always hoped that the group will break apart."
"I am very confident that we will come to a result that will show Iran once again that our concerns are not eliminated, and the resolve of the international community of states -- including Russia and China -- remains," he said.
The talks between the foreign ministers and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, are aimed at discussing "the way forward and to assess where we are in ... the efforts we have been making to get Iran to suspend its enrichment," U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.
The meeting follows last month's U.S. intelligence assessment that Tehran stopped active work on a nuclear weapons program in 2003. That appeared to stiffen resistance from Russia and China, which have Security Council vetoes, to a quick and harsh third round of sanctions over Iran's defiance of international demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.
Ahead of the meeting, France said it expects a quick agreement on a new draft U.N. resolution to increase pressure on Tehran, but Rice told reporters on the plane from Washington to Berlin that the meeting was not intended to be a negotiating session, and "some issues" remained.
"We'll just have to see what the next step is, but I don't think there is any disagreement that we ought to be moving toward a resolution," Rice said.
The group last met on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York, before the U.S. intelligence assessment was released.
The French diplomat, who briefed reporters in Paris on condition that he not be identified by name, said an agreement should be finalized by the ministers at Tuesday's meeting.
He would not give details on the resolution, but said it would be "very balanced, very firm" and likely be presented to the Security Council for debate by the end of the month. "We are really very close," he said.
Iran insists it never had a nuclear weapons program and that its work is for peaceful purposes such as energy production.
On Monday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said that Washington and the other Western powers would not succeed in efforts to halt Iran's nuclear program.
"They are looking for excuses," he said. "This will not bear fruit and will mostly work against them, and we will continue our constructive cooperation with the (International Atomic Energy) agency," the U.N. nuclear watchdog.
IAEA director Mohammed Elbaradei visited Tehran this month, and Iran agreed to answer all remaining questions over its nuclear activities within weeks.
Iran's nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, will be in Brussels on Wednesday to talk at the European Parliament, but the EU's Solana said that, as yet, they have no plans to meet.
"I have to see if that is a real use of my time, for me to meet him," Solana told reporters on Monday. "We may find some time to meet."
