Officials from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- as well as from Germany will meet during consultations that Russia is hosting as this year's chair of the G8 (Group of Eight) wealthier countries.

The meeting comes ahead of an April 28 deadline announced by the 15-member Security Council for Iran to comply with demands by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) for an enrichment freeze to allay suspicions it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability.

Iran insists its nuclear programme is only intended for the purpose of energy production.

The officials from the six countries will be joined by officials from the other G8 countries -- Canada, Italy and Japan -- later in the day, the Kremlin said on Monday.

The United States has said possible punitive measures such as the freezing of assets and travel restrictions on Iranian representatives will be on the agenda.

Iran raised the stakes last Tuesday by announcing it had successfully enriched uranium to the level needed for reactor fuel.

That announcement came as a blow to Moscow, as Russia has been trying to intermediate in the dispute between Iran and the West.

In particular Russia has promoted a plan to meet Iran's uranium needs by carrying out enrichment of uranium on Russian soil.

Both China and Russia have voiced reluctance to go ahead with Western proposals to strengthen international sanctions against Iran.

But Western countries are hoping that Tehran's intransigence will persuade Moscow and Beijing to back a chapter seven resolution that would aim to make mandatory the demands outlined in the March 29 non-binding council statement.

"There would then be a legal obligation for Iran to comply (with the IAEA demands)," a diplomat told AFP at the United Nations earlier, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Tuesday's meeting is unlikely to produce an announcement of concrete steps against Iran but is intended to help coordinate the positions of the countries involved, a European diplomatic source here told AFP.

Vladimir Dvorkin, an analyst at Moscow's Centre for Policy Studies, said the Tuesday's meeting could produce a condemnation of Iran, but that "the important days will come on April 28," when the head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, will report to the Security Council on how far Iran has met Western demands.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Thursday demanded tough action by the Security Council and said Washington "will look at the full range of options available to the United Nations".

Rice raised the prospect of invoking chapter seven of the UN Charter which can authorize sanctions or even the use of force in case of a threat to international peace and security or an act of aggression.