Olli Heinonen, deputy head of the International Atomic Energency Agency (IAEA), met nuclear officials a day after six world powers discussed Tehran's response to their offer to resolve the nuclear standoff, IRNA news agency said.

It was not clear, however, if Heinonen's two-day visit was directly related to incentives being offered to Iran to freeze uranium enrichment activities, a process that Western nations fear could be diverted to build an atomic weapon.

IRNA gave scant details about the talks between Heinonen and the deputy chief of Iran's atomic organisation, Mohammad Saeedi, and Iran's IAEA representative Ali Asghar Soltanieh.

A diplomat close to the IAEA said Heinonen's visit would concentrate on clarifying outstanding questions which the watchdog has about Iran's nuclear programme rather than the incentives offer.

As the Tehran meeting got under way US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice threatened Iran with new sanctions, calling its reponse to the latest bid by Western powers to freeze uranium enrichment inadequate.

"Iran has a way out if they ever wish, but we will seriously pursue sanctions if they don't," Rice told Yahoo! News and the magazine Politico.

Tehran's latest response to a demand for the enrichment freeze in exchange for trade and technology incentives "is not a really serious answer," she said.

Washington has already backed three sets of UN sanctions against Iran.

On Wednesday the United States and Britain said there was agreement among six world powers that "no choice" was left but to seek new sanctions after Iran failed to give a "clear positive response."

The six, which also include China, France, Germany and Russia, agreed that the new sanctions should be discussed at the Security Council.

The powers "have agreed that, while informal contacts between (EU foreign policy chief Javier) Solana and (Iranian negotiator Saeed) Jalili will continue, we now have no choice but to pursue further sanctions against Iran, as part of our dual-track strategy," British junior foreign minister Kim Howells said.

However Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin said he was unaware of any such consensus on sanctions, adding that ministerial talks by the six powers on further sanctions were likely to continue during the UN General Assembly session between September 23 and October 1.

The United States and its allies say Iran's nuclear programme could be a cover to develop atomic weapons, and Washington has never ruled out military action over the standoff.

Iran insists that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty it has the right to develop nuclear technology which it says is aimed at generating electricity for its growing population.

Tehran has warned it could close the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the crucial Gulf oil supply route that separates it from Oman, if it became the target of a military attack over its nuclear programme.

The new head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, renewed the threat on Monday as he announced that Iran had successfully tested an anti-ship missile with a range of 300 kilometres (180 miles).

Heinonen has made a series of visits to Iran as part of the IAEA's longstanding efforts to make sure there is no military dimension to the country's nuclear programme. The last visit was on April 28.

In his most recent report on Iran in May, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei accused Tehran of withholding key information on so-called weaponisation studies. Iran dismissed the allegations as "baseless."

It has since gone further, with Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh, who heads Iran's atomic energy organisation, insisting the studies were not a matter for the UN watchdog.

"We are dealing with it through other channels. Measures have already been taken and we will follow them up if necessary and if appropriate," Aghazadeh said last month.

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