( dpa ) - Iran cannot be allowed to develop nuclear weapons technology, Germany's foreign minister said on Thursday.
"The international community cannot and will not allow that nuclear weapons technology will be developed in this region," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said ahead of a meeting with the UN nuclear watchdog in Vienna.
Steinmeier came to the Austrian capital for a brief meeting with Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), ahead of a meeting of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany in Berlin next Tuesday.
"In this connection it is important how the director of the IAEA, who had just returned from a visit to Teheran, assesses the situation, especially after the talks in Tehran where he also met with the religious leader," Steinmeier told journalists.
The world powers wanted to know how ElBaradei assessed the options for a solution, the German foreign minister said.
Steinmeier was to be briefed by ElBaradei on the results of his trip to Teheran last week, diplomats in Vienna said. ElBaradei met with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme spiritual leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Iran had agreed to answer all outstanding issues of its nuclear past within the next four weeks.
In a work-plan thrashed out by the IAEA and Iran last summer Tehran vowed to clear up questions it has failed to answer since the beginning of the IAEA's investigation its nuclear programme in 2003.
A recent assessment by US intelligence organizations concluded that Iran stopped work on a weapons programme in 2003. While these new developments needed to be taken on board, it remained obvious that the problem was not solved, the German foreign minister warned.
Open questions remain that Iran urgently needs to answer in order to retain the confidence of the international community, Steinmeier said.
Germany invited the foreign ministers of the UN Security Council member states to talks in Berlin next Tuesday on a third UN sanctions resolution to pressure Iran on its nuclear programme.
"We will meet in Berlin in a few days with the permanent members of the Security Council and discuss how the unity displayed by the international community can be shown in the future as well," Steinmeier said.
Germany previously stressed that a new resolution against Iran was necessary, as the country continued to ignore Security Council demands to halt its uranium enrichment drive and was thereby violating international law.