BERLIN—The world's major powers will try Tuesday to overcome differences over imposing more sanctions on Iran and to keep up pressure on the Tehran leadership to curb its nuclear program.
Ahead of the meeting of foreign ministers in Berlin from the five permanent U.N. Security Council members and Germany, diplomats played down prospects for agreement on a third sanctions resolution to punish Iran for defying world demands that it stop its enrichment of uranium.
The West suspects Iran is secretly pursuing an atomic bomb, but Iran says its atomic program is for civilian energy uses.
Russian and Chinese opposition to tougher sanctions has hardened since a U.S. intelligence report last month said Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and the powers remain divided over how far a new resolution should go.
"Ultimately it will depend on what Russia and China want," said a senior European diplomat.
"They agree in principle that we need some kind of resolution. That's a start. But there will be haggling over what to include."
The ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States are due to meet in Berlin at 4.30 p.m. (1530 GMT) and will hold a news conference at 6 p.m. (1700 GMT).
They last met to discuss Iran in September in New York and have made little tangible progress since then.
A senior U.S. official said on Monday the major powers had intensive discussions over the weekend ahead of the meeting in Berlin.
"All of the six agree that there must be a resolution. We have not finalized negotiations on the text," the official told reporters. "It's unclear whether we will have an agreement in Berlin. There is still a ways to go. We are not there yet."
The official said there were still some "substantial" outstanding issues that needed to be resolved, but declined to provide details.
IAEA Deadline Complicates Dael
Senior officials from all six countries are set to hold telephone discussions early on Tuesday ahead of the ministers meeting in Berlin, the U.S. official said.
Washington has spearheaded the drive for more punitive measures and is keen to ensure a new resolution tightens the noose on additional Iranian state banks.
Russia and China, both commercial partners of Iran, are resisting, although diplomats believe both countries would accept a watered-down resolution.
Further complicating the talks, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director Mohamed ElBaradei won agreement from Iran this month to answer outstanding questions within four weeks on its past covert nuclear work.
To show they have gone the extra mile, some Europeans would prefer to wait until that deadline expires before moving ahead with the resolution, according to a European official involved in the negotiations.
Host Germany has indicated it would be happy with a show of unity Tuesday and a rough consensus on how the powers move forward in coming weeks.
A senior Iranian official said sanctions were being used in a "dangerous and inappropriate way" against Iran and said new measures would not help to defuse the dispute.
"If they want to continue their trend to push for another resolution, even a very weak one, I don't think it can solve anything," Ali Aghamohammadi, a representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told Reuters in Tehran.
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