West tries to close ranks with Russia, China

British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said Saturday that diplomacy was still possible even as other Western leaders made clear that bringing Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions was still very much on the cards.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier warned that Iran could face economic sanctions if it does not come to an agreement with the international community.

The UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency has called on Iran to cease work that can make fuel for nuclear power reactors but also nuclear bomb material and to cooperate fully with a now three-year-old IAEA investigation of the Iranian nuclear programme.

"It wouldn't be intelligent to rule out economic sanctions. Iran shouldn't underestimate its dependence on technical and economic cooperation with the West," Steinmeier said in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine.

Straw said in Davos, Switzerland that the London meeting would agree what resolution to put to an emergency IAEA board of governors session Thursday in Vienna. The IAEA's 35-nation board has the power to send the Iranian atomic dossier to the Security Council.

Non-proliferation analyst Gary Samore told AFP that the United States wants the London meeting to send a strong message to Iran and would be pushing for a statement from what is a gathering of the five permanent Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States -- plus Germany that would warn Iran against nuclear fuel work.