"It might be time to consider a different approach toward the new, more radical, more intolerant Iranian regime," said Nicholas Burns, undersecretary for political affairs at the Department of State.

"Through its diplomatic contacts and its trade and investment, the world does have leverage -- and that leverage should be used constructively now -- to convince the hard-liners in Tehran that there is a price for their misguided policies," Burns said at Johns Hopkins University in Washington.

Speaking to journalists after his talk, Burns, the number three official in the State Department, noted that Russia, China, Japan, India, Australia and the European Union were all concerned that Iran was seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Asked if he was proposing that the EU impose sanctions if diplomatic talks with Iran fail, Burns said "That is up to the EU to decide. It is not up to the US."

"All of us around the world have to think about how we can influence that government. And it is certainly one way that many countries around the world can do that," he said.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in Ankara earlier Wednesday that preliminary talks with the European Union over Tehran's nuclear programme will begin in mid-December.

"The preliminary negotiations between Iran and the EU will start in two weeks," Mottaki told a press conference.

However, diplomats in Vienna said the timing was not yet firm, noting that Iran wants the meeting to be at the ministerial level while negotiators from Britain, France and Germany want it only at the level of senior foreign ministry officials.

Negotiations over Iran's nuclear programme have been bogged down recently over Tehran's resumption of uranium enrichment operations.

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