New York: Six powers to think over new sanctions on Iran

Six major powers will meet today to consider a response to Iran's nuclear defiance but China is sending a lower level diplomat in a signal of its reluctance to back tougher sanctions pushed by the West.Britain, France, Russia, Germany and the United States are sending top officials of their respective foreign ministries at the meeting hosted by the European Union. The six officials representing the so-called P51 are scheduled to meet today for a working luncheon at the EU mission in New York. Diplomats said Western members of the group of the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany were likely to present their Russian and Chinese colleagues with a range of new and tougher sanctions. The goal is to crank up the pressure on Iran to accept a UN brokered deal aimed at allaying suspicions about the nature of its nuclear program by shipping most of its low enriched uranium (LEU) stockpile abroad to be further enriched into reactor fuel.