Ambassadors of five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council held a round of meetings to discuss a watered down draft on Iran.
The draft calls on Iran to abandon uranium enrichment plans ahead of their ministers' meet in Berlin on Thursday.
The new draft proposed by Britain and France with the support of the United States softens the language in earlier drafts that faced objections from Russia.
The ambassadors met three times within a span of eight hours on Tuesday before circulating the draft to the remaining ten non-permanent members. The council is expected to have closed door discussions on Wednesday night.
Though London and Paris, backed by Washington, watered down the draft but it retains the language, which asks Tehran to stop its nuclear enrichment programme that can be used for both producing fuel for civilian power plants and for making nuclear weapons, diplomats said.
However, Moscow still seemed to be dissatisfied.
Russia is also opposed to linking Iranian programme to international peace and security as it feels that the formulation could be used by a nation or group of nations to take punitive action against Tehran even if there no other resolution from the Council.
But Western diplomats say that the main purpose of the Council is to maintain peace and security and writing it in the statement should not be considered objectionable.
{{/usCountry}}But Western diplomats say that the main purpose of the Council is to maintain peace and security and writing it in the statement should not be considered objectionable.
{{/usCountry}}In their original draft, Britain and France had given 14 days to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to report back on Iranian compliance to the Council demand for ending its uranium enrichment programme.