World powers began talks today on a new sanctions resolution against Iran amid differences over how harshly to punish the country for sensitive nuclear work the West suspects could lead to an atomic bomb.
The West has been engaged in a diplomatic showdown with Iran, which says its nuclear programme is for peaceful power generation, since 2002 and the UN Security Council has already imposed two sets of sanctions, in December 2006 and March 2007.
Foreign ministers from the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany started their first round of formal Iran negotiations since September shortly after 4.30 pm and were expected to talk for over one hour.
Ahead of the Berlin meeting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the powers still had "some way to go" in agreeing a third UN sanctions resolution which could include measures ranging from investment freezes to travel bans and an arms embargo.
"The political directors have made some progress," Rice said, referring to envoys who had been trying to hammer out language on a new resolution that is acceptable to all six countries. "I know there are still some gaps to close."
Washington has spearheaded a months-long drive for more punitive measures and wants a new resolution to impose a ban on business with leading Iranian state banks.
But Russia and China, both commercial partners of Iran, have hardened their opposition to tougher sanctions since a US intelligence report last month said Iran had halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.
Iran vowed today that new sanctions would not stop it from pursuing its "legitimate" right to nuclear energy.
Host Frank-Walter Steinmeier said he hoped the ministers from Britian, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States would send Iran a signal about their concern over its nuclear ambitions but also warned success was not guaranteed.
"The fact that Russia and China are both here is a positive sign," the German foreign minister told ARD public television.
"I can't promise we will come out of this meeting with an agreement on how to proceed in the UN Security Council, that we will agree on the text of a resolution and I can't tell you what new sanctions will look like."
However, a senior US official said political directors had talked all day about a new resolution to prepare the ground for the ministers and made progress.
A French source also voiced optimism on the eve of the meeting that the ministers would seal a new draft that could be forwarded to the United Nations in the coming days.
The foreign ministers have made little tangible progress since their last meeting in New York.
International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei won agreement from Iran this month to answer questions about its past covert nuclear work within four weeks, but western diplomats say expectations are low that leaders in Tehran will be
forthcoming.