NEW YORK, Mar 20 (AFP): Top foreign ministry officials of the five veto-wielding members of the UN Security Council and Germany will meet here Monday to plot long-term strategy on how to tackle the Iranian nuclear crisis. Participants at the meeting, to be held at Britain's UN mission, will be US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak and foreign ministry political directors John Sawers of Britain, Stanislas de Laboulaye of France, Zhang Yan of China and Michael Schaefer of Germany, officials said. Germany is one of three European powers -- along with France and Britain -- which have pursued three years of inconclusive negotiations to coax Tehran into renouncing plans to seek nuclear weapons in exchange for economic incentives. The high-level meeting comes as the 15-member Security Council is reporting progress in efforts to agree a revised Franco-British draft urging Iran to comply with demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it restore international confidence in the peaceful nature of its atomic program. The text aims to reinforce the IAEA demands, including immediate suspension of all uranium enrichment activities and resumption of implementation of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT)'s Additional Protocol that allows for wider inspections of a country's nuclear facilities. France and Britain hope that their draft can be adopted by the full Council next week. In announcing the six-nation meeting, a US State Department official said Thursday that the participants would discuss the Franco-Britsh draft, but added: "I wouldn't be surprised if they talked about the broader issue of Iran's nuclear program."
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