Foreign ministers of major powers failed to come up with a joint strategy for dealing with Iran after Tehran sought to influence the talks with a last-minute diplomatic manoeuvre, officials said.
Six weeks, three ministerial conferences and half a dozen senior-level meetings after the UN Security Council took up Iran's controversial nuclear program, world powers seemed no closer to agreeing what to do about it.
Chief diplomats of the United States, three European allies, Russia and China wound up three hours of intensive talks last night with no consensus on a UN resolution to check Tehran's suspected nuclear weapons ambitions.
Political directors of the Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany were to meet in New York today in a new bid to hash out a response to Iran's refusal to halt sensitive uranium-enrichment activities.
A senior US official, who asked not to be named, said there was little chance a resolution would be ready this week. He said the political directors would most likely continue their deliberations next week in Europe.
But there was no sign that Russia and China, which both wield a veto on the 15-member council, were ready to ease their resistance to punitive measures against the Islamic republic.
"The Chinese side is opposed to the use of sanctions or the use of force in the settlement of international affairs," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said in Beijing.
"The Iranian issue is at a crucial moment. We urge all sides to remain calm, exercise restraint, show flexibility and avoid a worsening of the situation," he told reporters.
Moscow's top envoy Sergei Lavrov spoke of "general agreement on the need to create conditions for resuming direct negotiations on Iran's nuclear program" broken off with Britain, Germany and France in January.