The talks between the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany were to build on a meeting held Monday in London at the level of foreign ministry directors.

Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States discussed the draft of a second resolution to be presented to the UN Security Council on tougher sanctions against Tehran.

"The telephone conference call took place as scheduled at the level of political directors and the discussions on the contents of the new resolution are ongoing," said foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei.

French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy earlier this week sounded optimistic, saying prospects for a quick agreement on new sanctions resolution were good.

Washington is also awaiting the outcome of the six-way contacts after a report from the UN nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA, last week said that Iran had not halted, but in fact was expanding, its uranium enrichment programme.

"We hope at that point that they can actually come to agreement on the elements of the resolution," said US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack on Monday.

The United States and some other western powers believe Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons capability.

Iran however has denied seeking nuclear weapons, and asserts it has a right to a peaceful nuclear programme.

All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.