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Six-nation meet today to seek unity on Iran
Foreign ministers of six major powers will meet today to map out a common strategy to force Iran to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work.
Foreign ministers of six major powers will meet on Monday in a fresh bid to map out a common strategy to force Iran to halt sensitive nuclear fuel work that could be used for bombs.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will host her counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia as well as European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, at a working dinner that will focus on Tehran's rejection of repeated UN demands to halt uranium enrichment.
The meeting will coincide with continuing bargaining in the 15-member UN Security Council on a Franco-British draft resolution that would legally require Iran to freeze all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.
It comes as Tehran vowed on Sunday that it would refuse to comply with such a resolution, warning the diplomatic crisis was heading toward a "confrontation".
French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel issued a joint call for a tough UN stance.
The two leaders agreed in a telephone conversation that the Security Council must adopt "a resolution making obligatory the requests of the IAEA, notably the suspension of uranium enrichment," the French president's office said in a statement, referring to the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency.
US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton told reporters Saturday that the ministers would "talk about the longer-term policy that we need to pursue to stop Iran from achieving a nuclear weapons capability" at Monday's meeting.
