"The instruction has been sent" to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a diplomat from one of the three European Union countries negotiating with Iran told AFP.

The Vienna-based IAEA is the agency which would refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions, but the diplomat said the purpose in calling a meeting next week was to warn off the Iranians from their announced intention to resume fuel cycle work possibly related to nuclear weapons development.

The diplomat added, however, that "this might be a meeting where something else happens," a reference to Iran presenting the IAEA with a fait accompli of having already started uranium conversion, a first step in enriching uranium.

Meanwhile, diplomats said some nations were trying to get EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany to back off on holding the meeting over worries about lack of support on the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors for a hard line against Iran.

The diplomatic jockeying comes amid a high-stakes confrontation between Iran and the West over an Iranian nuclear program which the United States claims hides an attempt to develop atomic weapons but which Iran says is peaceful power plant work allowed under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The European trio is to hand over proposals in Tehran, possibly as early as Friday, on resolving the crisis, an EU diplomat told AFP.

But Iran said Thursday it would be resuming within one or two days uranium conversion work it had suspended in November to start talks with the EU.

The EU and the United States are expected to call for Iran to be brought before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if Tehran resumes the conversion activities, the first phase in enriching uranium into fuel that can be used in civilian nuclear reactors but could also serve as the explosive core of atom bombs.

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