British FM to Chair Meeting on I.R. Iran at UN

AFP

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband will chair a meeting about Iran's nuclear programme at the UN General Assembly in New York this week, the British government said on Monday. Miliband will preside over a meeting on Wednesday of the so-called EU3+3, comprising European powers Britain, France and Germany with the United States, Russia and China, Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman told reporters.

The meeting takes place before the same countries are scheduled to hold talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, starting on October 1. Those talks, which are expected to take place in Turkey, will be the first high-level meeting on the issue since US President Barack Obama took power.

Western nations are calling on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment drive which they suspect is aimed at making nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the charges and says its nuclear programme has peaceful goals.