"NOTHING HAS CHANGED"
Ahead of the meeting, which began at 1000 GMT, a spokeswoman for Solana said that they had taken note of Mottaki's comments, adding: "We have to see what Jalili says at the meeting."
A member of the Iranian delegation said they were "positive" about Friday's talks but did not elaborate. Solana's spokeswoman said he had no new proposals to make and wanted to hear whether Tehran had any new initiatives. "Nothing has changed".
The five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany agreed earlier that barring "a positive outcome" by November to both EU-Iran talks and a U.N. nuclear watchdog investigation of Iran, they would draft a new resolution imposing wider financial, trade and visa restrictions to increase pressure on Tehran to stop enriching uranium.
But Russia and China, and to a lesser extent Germany, have close commercial ties to Iran and are likely to tailor their new sanctions proposals accordingly, taking a less hawkish approach than that of the United States, Britain and France.
"They (Western countries) shouldn't make threats because threats make Iran more determined," former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told worshippers at Tehran University.
Rafsanjani, who is also the speaker of the powerful Assembly of Experts, said that Iran was cooperating with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), referring to an August agreement under which Tehran pledged to the Vienna-based body to clear up suspicions about past secret atomic activities.
Iran has barred inspections beyond uranium production sites since its case was referred to the U.N. Security Council in February 2006, fuelling suspicions in the West that it has a covert parallel military nuclear programme.
The IAEA sees wide-ranging, access to Iran's sites under its Additional Protocol with member states as key to verifying there is no such programme.
"Iran has no programme to discuss the Additional Protocol at its parliament and Iran has no commitment regarding the implementation of the Additional Protocol," Mottaki said.
