"The negotiating process has reached an impasse and the involvement of the Security Council is now necessary," French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said after the talks in Brussels between European officials and Iranian deputy nuclear negotiator Javad Vaedi.
"Iran has challenged the entire international community,"
Mr Douste-Blazy told reporters. "The international community has to respond to that challenge with firmness and efficiency."
German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier added: "There were no new proposals" from the Iranians.
British officials echoed the sentiment: "To be frank, we didn't detect anything new in their approach," said John Sawers, political director from the British Foreign Office.
But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the meeting indicated
Iran, which recently restarted nuclear work, had not abandoned efforts to find a diplomatic solution.
"The fact that Iran asked for these discussions this morning - they are not negotiations - illustrates the fact that Iran is ... concerned about its international position," Mr Straw said on Monday.
Iran negotiator Mr Vaedi appeared a little more upbeat upon leaving the meeting. "Now we can continue opening the chance for talks," he said.
European Union foreign ministers would jointly call on Iran again to end all nuclear enrichment-related activities, warning that otherwise they would seek to take the matter to the United Nations Security Council.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was scheduled to meet late on Monday with foreign ministers from the four other permanent Security Council members -- Britain, France, Russia and China -- plus Germany, to agree a joint position ahead of an emergency IAEA meeting in Vienna on Thursday.
Nuclear fears
The European Union has led negotiations meant to ease international concerns that Iran could use its nuclear program to produce weapons. Tehran says it only wants to generate nuclear power.
Earlier this month, Iran broke UN seals at a uranium enrichment plant and said it would resume nuclear fuel research after a two-year freeze, saying it would involve what it called limited uranium enrichment.
A draft EU statement said recent Iranian actions "run counter to
International Atomic Energy Agency resolutions and ... are a rejection of the efforts to explore whether a basis can be agreed for resuming negotiations."
Officials had hoped that the stand-off “can still be solved by negotiations" rather than referral to the UN Security Councl, but said that would "require a cooperative and transparent approach on the part of the Iranian government."
Russian plan touted
The EU said a Russian proposal to enrich uranium and send the fuel back to Iran, allowing more oversight of the process, could be the way forward.
The European powers are wary of allowing Iran to carry out nuclear fuel production on its own territory. Enriched uranium can be used as both fuel for nuclear power and in the production of weapons, depending on how it is processed.
"We are looking with interest at that proposal," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said. "It is a proposal in which enrichment would be done outside, in Russia, but at the moment no agreement has been reached between Russia and Iran."
But Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said Friday that the Russian proposal did not meet "all the nuclear energy needs of Iran."
The 35-nation board of the IAEA will on Thursday debate a European Union demand to haul Tehran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Russia and China, which are veto-wielding members of the UN executive and have extensive trade ties to Iran, are against immediate UN action.
Moscow wants the IAEA merely to send an information report on Iran and wait until another meeting March to decide whether to call for UN action.
A diplomat close to the IAEA said Russia has told the West to take its time or risk a veto at the Security Council.