Major industrial nations threatened today to support "further appropriate measures" if Iran failed to comply with UN resolutions demanding that it suspend nuclear enrichment.
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani reiterated that he would not give in to demands that his country suspend uranium enrichment over fears it is developing nuclear weapons. Iran denies that it is secretly developing atom bombs.
Mr Larijani is due to hold talks tomorrow with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana amid a long-running argument between Iran and the West over the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme.
Diplomats do not expect a breakthrough. "If Iran continues to ignore demands of the Security Council, we will support further appropriate measures as agreed in Resolution 1747," the Group of Eight (G8) foreign ministers said in a statement issued at a meeting in Potsdam, Germany.
The G8 statement also expressed "deep regret that Iran, as we saw in the latest report by the director general of the (International Atomic Energy Agency), has continued to expand its enrichment activities". Security Council resolution 1747 gave Tehran a 60-day deadline to freeze all enrichment work. Iran ignored the deadline, which expired last week.
The term "appropriate measures" is widely seen as diplomatic code for sanctions. The Council has already imposed two rounds of sanctions on Iran for failing to suspend uranium enrichment, a process of purifying uranium for power plants or weapons.
Besides major Western powers and Japan, the G8 also includes Russia, which has backed previous UN resolutions in the past while stressing Iran's right to a peaceful nuclear programme.