Speaking at the start of a critical week of high-stakes diplomacy, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany are working out a plan for resumption of talks with Tehran.
"We are prepared to guarantee Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy on the condition it answers the questions the IAEA has raised," Russian news agencies quoted him as saying, referring to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Foreign ministers from the five permanent UN Security Council members are expected to meet in Vienna on Thursday to discuss Iran's nuclear ambitions and possible sanctions.
The proposed meeting, which would include representatives from Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States, as well as Germany and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, has not yet been confirmed, diplomats told AFP.
However one European diplomat said it was being arranged in order to "fine-tune" a EU-drafted package of incentives to get Iran to guarantee it will not make nuclear weapons, as well as sanctions if Tehran does not comply.
Political directors from the six foreign ministries will Tuesday discuss the package in a telephone conference, diplomats in Vienna confirmed.
At the same time, Iran stressed that it would pursue its uranium enrichment work -- the process that makes fuel for reactors but also what can be the raw material for atom bombs.
"Enrichment will continue on Iranian territory within the framework of Iran's peaceful nuclear programme and the IAEA," government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters in Tehran.
The US and EU want Iran to abandon all uranium enrichment activities, concerned that Tehran may be moving towards building an atomic bomb.
But Iran insists on its right to enrich uranium but would be willing to limit its enrichment activities, diplomats have said.