The meeting will be chaired by the EU and attended by representatives of Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and Iran, the EU said in a statement.

The US on Friday accused China and allies Britain and France of "abdicating their duty" as it held firm on its solitary push to maintain an arms embargo and restore broader UN sanctions on Iran dating back to 2006.

Britain, France and Germany had on Thursday rejected the US move, calling it "incompatible with our current efforts to support the JCPOA," the 2015 accord that aimed to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapons capability.

The US administration of President Donald Trump pulled out of the Iran accord in 2018 but controversially maintains it has the right to force the reimposition of sanctions through the agreement's "snapback" mechanism.