A Foreign Office spokesman said "political directors" from Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China would meet as part of a pattern of regular exchanges at senior official level.

He added that no ministers would attend and said that the meeting would allow representatives to discuss "how they see the process going forward".

US State Department spokesman Sean McCormack announced last week that a meeting of the six would take place in Europe this week.

Last month, China pulled out of a planned meeting on the issue because it was angry at Washington awarding a top honour to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader, during his visit to the United States.

The United States announced unilateral sanctions against three banks and several units of the Iranian military last week.

And British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said last week that he is ready to push for tighter United Nations and European Union sanctions against Iran, which insists its nuclear programme is for civilian power purposes.

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