The six world powers engaged in nuclear negotiations with Iran urgently seek a new round of talks with the Islamic Republic, an EU spokesperson said Wednesday, DPA reported.
Top diplomats from Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States - the so-called E3+3 - met in Brussels to discuss the future of their diplomatic efforts to halt Iran's nuclear programme.
At the previous round in Moscow in June, both sides failed to overcome their differences on who should take which steps first in order to end the nuclear stand-off.
"The E3+3 are committed to having another round of talks with Iran as soon as possible," said a spokesperson of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who led the six-power group in the past rounds of talks.
A senior Western official said Tuesday in Vienna that new negotiations could take place before the end of the year, and that the group of six was discussing how to improve its incentives offer to Tehran.
So far, they have proposed to provide spare airplane parts as well as fuel and technical assistance for a research reactor in Tehran, while demanding that uranium enrichment to a level of 20 per cent be stopped.
Iran wants sanctions to be lifted before making any such concessions.
"We want to try to give Iran incentives to meet its obligations, but Iran will obviously have to take steps as well," the official said.
The call for fresh talks came after the latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said Friday that Iran had boosted its capacity to enrich uranium to 20 per cent.
Such material could quickly be processed further for use in nuclear weapons, but Tehran's leaders deny having any such plans.