Representatives from six world powers meeting in London agreed Friday to push ahead with a third round of sanctions against Iran, unless it quickly shows greater transparency with regard to its nuclear research program. Tom Rivers has this report for VOA.

iran nuclear

Representatives from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China, along with Germany, agreed to push ahead with new sanctions, unless Tehran demonstrates it is not trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Tehran maintains its uranium enrichment program is purely designed for civilian power generation.

At the London meeting, representatives of the six world powers agreed to support a third sanctions resolution in the U.N. Security Council against Iran, if two key reports due this month do not show positive results.

The first report is to be submitted by the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, the second, by the European Union Foreign Policy Chief, and one time NATO boss, Javier Solana.

According to British Foreign Office sources, the top officials meeting in London asked Solana to seek a further meeting with Iran's new chief nuclear negotiator and report back to them.

Last week, the U.S. imposed additional unilateral sanctions on Tehran.

Before Friday's London meeting, U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns said Russia and China had effectively blocked moves toward a third wave of sanctions for six months.