Failed Talks

As Germany did its best to bring about a peaceful resolution to the nuclear dispute, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after his meeting with Iran's negotiator Ali Larijani Thursday that he will not be presenting the Iranian government another option.

"We have offered Iran a broad cooperation," he told the newspaper Die Welt Friday, adding that the international community was now waiting for Iran to declare itself ready to negotiate, but that time was running out. "Iran must make it unambiguously clear that its nuclear programm serves peaceful purposes only," he said.

No headway

Little headway was made in the seven hours of talks between Larijani and the EU's Foreign Policy Co-ordinator Javier Solana.

"We have made some important progress on the elements of how the potential negotiations can take place," said Solana. "There are still some important issues that have not been closed."

Solana has been given until early October to reach a deal. Otherwise, the US says it will press the UN Security Council for sanctions against Iran. So far, Solana's discussions aren't past the preliminary stage, but he said another round of talks would be held soon.

US impatience

In Washington, US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack reaffirmed that a new deadline for Iranian compliance that was agreed last week among the permanent five UN Security Council members and Germany -- the so-called P-5-plus-1 nations -- was looming and would not be changed.

"The timeline that was agreed in New York stays, and we are getting short now in terms of that time," he said, referring to the moment when the six nations would seek UN sanctions against Tehran.

The deadline has not been officially revealed by the six nations, which also include Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, but European diplomats involved in the negotiations said it was sometime next week.

"The ball is in their court," McCormack said Thursday of the Iranians. "Nobody wants to go down the path of sanctions -- that is not our first choice. But we are prepared, along with the P-5-plus-1, to go down that path if that's the door that the Iranian regime wants to open," he said.

Meanwhile, the US House of Representatives approved legislation to ramp up economic pressure on Iran in an effort to convince Tehran to abandon its nuclear program.

Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, author of the Iran Freedom Support Act, said the bill would deny Iran "the technical assistance, financial resources, and political legitimacy to develop nuclear weapons and support terrorism."

Incentives

The EU-Iran talks focus on a list of economic and diplomatic incentives put forward by the six powers in June as a reward if Iran suspends its uranium enrichment.

The incentives include support for an Iranian nuclear power industry and the first direct contacts between the US and Iran in nearly 30 years.

McCormack insisted that negotiations involving the United States could begin only after Iran freezes its enrichment program and the suspension is verified by monitors from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Solana-Larijani talks were believed to be focussing on the "sequencing" of a possible decision by Iran to temporarily suspend enrichment and the subsequent start of full negotiations on the incentives package.

European diplomats said Larijani has offered a temporary suspension, but it was unclear if the proposal had the support of the various factions within the Iranian leadership.

The negotiations were given a fresh chance after Washington, under pressure from Europe and China, backed down on its demand for immediate sanctions against Iran for failing to meet the August 31 deadline.