Germany and France are keeping up the pressure on Iran over its nuclear program but Chancellor Angela Merkel has cautioned that referral to the UN Security Council is still several steps away.
Ms Merkel and French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin held talks in Berlin after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed it would meet on February 2 to discuss how to respond to the growing crisis.
Mr Villepin, for his part, said the option of referring the Islamic republic to the Security Council "cannot be ruled out".
"We can no longer accept that Iran scoffs at the rules of the international community," he said.
However the French prime minister said the international community must stand ready to help Iran if it showed signs of seeking a compromise.
Iran’s president said he was confident that his country would avoid referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Dilpomats divided
However diplomats disagreed, saying Iran is almost certain to be referred to the council when the IAEA 35-nation board of governors meets in Vienna.
Sharp international divisions remain about how to crack down on an Iranian nuclear program which the United States claims hides secret atomic weapons work.
Unlike the IAEA, the Security Council has the power to enforce nuclear non-proliferation agreements but it may take measures short of sanctions, diplomats said.
Referral (to the council) "is not going to change the situation," a diplomat said, referring to Russian and Chinese opposition to US and European pressure for a threat of UN sanctions or other measures.
The current crisis began when Iran said earlier this month that it was terminating a voluntary moratorium on sensitive nuclear research.
The IAEA confirmed that it would hold the emergency meeting following a request by European Union negotiators Britain, France and Germany.
The EU trio asked the IAEA in a letter for a meeting "to discuss the situation concerning the Iranian nuclear program in the light of the agency's statute, the implementation of the NPT (nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty) Safeguards Agreement in the Islamic Republic of Iran and related board resolutions".
The trio decided to call for the special session after meeting in London on Monday with officials from the United States, China and Russia.
The United States and the EU on Wednesday rebuffed an Iranian call for new talks on their nuclear dispute.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the Iranians had yet to show they were ready for real talks.
The West has a majority 21 votes on the IAEA board of governors, and Iranian allies Russia and China are expected to abstain when the Iranian issue comes up.
But in New York, Russia and China each have a veto on the Security Council.
Iran said confidently that there was only a "weak" chance of being hauled before the council, alluding to Russian and Chinese reluctance to make such a move.
Enrichment freeze
Iran is sticking by a freeze on full-scale uranium enrichment, the process that makes nuclear reactor fuel that can also be bomb material, but national security spokesman Hossein Entezami told the government newspaper Iran that this could change.
"If our case goes to the Security Council, whether as a simple warning, to reinforce the head of the IAEA or even to decide on sanctions, the government will be obliged to put an end to the suspension of activities," he said.
He said Iran would also "cease the application" of the additional protocol to the NPT which he said "gives agency inspectors a free hand".
US envoy to the United Nations, John Bolton, said in New York on Tuesday that the Iranian nuclear crisis was a key test for the council, and warned there was no guarantee a consensus would be reached on how to deal with Tehran.
Also lobbying is Israel, whose view that Iran is an existential threat has been reinforced by a series of anti-Israeli outbursts by hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He has called for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map".
Senior Israeli security experts were meeting Russian officials in Moscow to discuss the issue.
Good relations with Iran are a high priority for both Russia, whose arms and atomic energy sector have scored big Iranian orders, and China, a major buyer of Iranian oil.
Russia has proposed setting up a facility jointly with Iran, and on
Russian territory, for enriching uranium to be used in the Islamic republic's first nuclear power plant at Bushehr, a proposal generally backed by the West and that Moscow says is still on the table.