A spokesman for Prime Minister Tony Blair said six-power talks in London were a "preliminary exercise" aimed at working out how to react to Tehran’s defiance of United Nations calls to suspend its uranium enrichment.
"Clearly the report to the UN is worrying and clearly people want to take further action. We need to work out how to do that," said the spokesman, referring to a report by the UN’s atomic energy agency.
"What I think however Iran should not do is make any mistake about the unity of the international community in opposition to its continued (flouting) of what the UN has said its obligations are."
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in a report to the UN Security Council last week that Tehran had failed to meet a UN deadline to stop uranium enrichment.
Blair’s spokesman declined to be drawn on the content of Monday’s talks among the five UN Security Council permament members plus Germany, but said the world remains determined.
"I think Iran should not in any way mistake private discussions (which are) taking place for weakening of resolve, quite the reverse," he said.
"This is international opinion, worldwide, as expressed through the UN, which said Iran is in defiance of its international obligations. It’s the world community that Iran has to answer to, not one or two individual countries."
The spokesman also lamented that Iranian hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s latest comment — that uranium enrichment was "a train on a one-way track" — showed little willingness to compromise.
"Unfortunately the president seems not to be willing to do so," said the spokesman.