"In Paris on December 1, Under Secretary (Nicholas) Burns will participate in a P5+1 political directors meeting to discuss the text of the next United Nations Security Council Chapter VII sanctions resolution on Iran," it said in a statement.

The meeting had originally been scheduled for November 19, but was cancelled after China said it would not be able to take part.

The new talks in Paris will gather the political directors from the foreign ministries of France, Britain, Russia, China, Germany and the United States to discuss the next steps in the bid to rein in Iran's suspect nuclear program.

The six countries take the international lead on the issue, and all but Germany hold a seat as a permanent member of the UN Security Council.

The United States on Monday urged China to back a new UN Security Council resolution mandating tougher sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, saying a deal with Beijing was possible soon.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Monday that Washington hoped for Chinese cooperation soon on the sanctions issue.

"Over the past several weeks we have been encouraging them to be more constructive both in scheduling a political directors meeting as well as really agreeing to the elements of a resolution," he said.

"I think we will be able to come to some agreement. We will see if we can get that accomplished in the coming weeks," McCormack added.

Burns was due first to attend the two-day annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) which opens in Madrid on Thursday.

"The United States again will demonstrate its support for the OSCE and its important work to promote human rights and democracy," the State Department said in its statement.

Washington has criticized Moscow for putting up obstacles to an OSCE observers mission which had been planned during the upcoming Russian elections.

At the Madrid talks "the United States delegation also will be seeking decisions on expanding the OSCE's activities in Afghanistan and Kosovo," the statement added.

All rights reserved. © 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.