It was unclear whether the envoys of the council’s five permanent members — Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States — plus Germany would be able to finalize an acceptable draft resolution in time for their briefing of the 10 non-permanent members.
But South African Ambassador Dumisani Kumalo, the president of the 15-member Council for March, said several non-permanent members felt that after nearly 10 days of deliberation, it was time for the six nations to report to the rest of the council.
Several non-permanent council members complained that the six virtually froze them out of the negotiations that led to the Iran sanctions last December.
The new punitive measures under consideration involve an arms embargo as well as some financial and trade restrictions that build on sanctions imposed by the Council on Iran in December after it spurned UN demands to suspend uranium enrichment.
The December sanctions included a ban on the sale of nuclear and ballistic missile-related materials to the Islamic Republic and a freeze on financial assets of Iranians involved in illicit atomic and missile research.
The bargaining among the six envoys was due to resume Wednesday afternoon after they and their experts failed to resolve a few remaining sticking points Tuesday.
"I hope we will be able to have an agreed text to present to the (other) members of the council," French Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said.
His Russian counterpart Vitaly Churkin noted that several among the six ambassadors still "have issues that need to be resolved".
Among those, Chinese Ambassador Wang Guangya cited a proposal to extend an assets freeze to several officials and entities thought to be linked to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
"For many, including China, we are not sure about all those entities, because the objective is to target (Iran’s) nuclear and missile activities. But now with so many names, we don’t know if they are linked to those activities or not," Wang said. "That’s why we need more information."
Meanwhile Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tuesday that his country was prepared to offer "necessary" guarantees on its nuclear program if the issue is withdrawn from the UN Security Council.
But in a speech to the international Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, he did not specify what guarantees Iran was prepared to give.
The six powers have offered to suspend their sanctions against Iran if Tehran complies with UN demands, particularly by suspending uranium enrichment.
But an Iranian government spokesman reiterated earlier Tuesday that Tehran had no intention of doing so.
Tehran announced earlier this week that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad planned to attend any crunch meeting of the Security Council in person to defend Iran’s position. But Iranian officials here and in Tehran insisted nothing had been confirmed.
The six powers want Iran to suspend uranium enrichment as they fear the process could be diverted away from civilian use to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists its nuclear program is entirely peaceful.
Meanwhile Churkin said a row between Tehran and Moscow over delays by the Russian firm Atomstroiexport in completing Iran’s’s first nuclear power station in the southern city of Bushehr had "no effect" on Russia’s stance in the sanctions debate here.