The talks were joined by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, "to underline the European character of the trio's mission to Tehran", an Italian diplomat said.

The foreign ministers of the EU's three biggest member countries -- Jack Straw, Dominique de Villepin and Joschka Fischer -- went to the Iranian capital on October 21 to urge Iran to comply with International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) demands over its nuclear drive.

They clinched an agreement from the Islamic republic, 10 days before an IAEA deadline, that it would sign the additional protocol to the Non-Proliferation Treaty allowing snap inspections of its nuclear sites by IAEA monitors.

"This was a debriefing meeting to evaluate the next steps," a British diplomat said after the hour-long encounter with IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, which took place on the sidelines of talks on the EU's first constitution.

"The ball is now to some extent in ElBaradei's court to see how Iran measures up to what it promised in Tehran," he said.

The meeting "was also to gauge how this mission fitted in with the EU's relations with Iran, especially in the context of the trade accord which we've been negotiating with the Iranians", the Italian diplomat said.

EU leaders warned at a summit earlier this month that the lucrative trade deal would be in jeopardy if Iran did not come clean on its nuclear drive.

WAR.WIRE