"We had a good meeting this morning. we made substantial progress," British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry told reporters.

He expressed hope that a compromise text would be agreed on this week and that the full 15-member council "will vote as soon as possible after that".

Western diplomats say they expect passage of the resolution by Christmas.

France's UN envoy Jean-Marc de La Sabliere also spoke of "progress" following amendments presented by Russia and the United States to a revised European draft drawn up by France, Britain and Germany.

"Important matters of principle have basically been agreed," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.

While there were still differences on some issues, including a proposed travel ban on officials directly involved in Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, the six powers now "have a basic understanding that we should be focusing on uranium enrichment, chemical reprocessing, heavy water projects and nuclear delivery systems," he added.

The European draft would mandate a ban on trade with Iran on goods related to its nuclear and ballistic missile programs and impose financial and travel restrictions on persons and entities involved.

Jones Parry said nuclear experts of the council would go over the text Thursday morning while envoys of the six major powers would take it up again later that day.

In the meantime, the amendments and the comments made during Wednesday's session would be forwarded to the envoys' respective capitals, he added.

Churkin for his part described the text as "very positive", "even tough there are certain restrictions on activities which we are concerned about."

In Washington, the State Department described amendments put forward by US deputy UN representative Alejandro Wolff as "tweaks".

Churkin hailed on Monday the European changes to the draft but objected to the proposed travel ban on officials linked to Tehran's nuclear and missile programs.

The text contains in its annex a list of 12 officials targeted for a travel ban, including some associated with the Natanz nuclear fuel processing facility and with the heavy-water reactor Iran is building in Arak, as well as Iran's Revolutionary Guards chief General Yahya Rahim Safavi.

It dropped, however, all references in the draft to Iran's first nuclear power station, a one-billion-dollar facility that Russia is helping to build in Bushehr.

Meanwhile Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed Wednesday that the Islamic Republic would make further progress in its nuclear program despite the objections of world powers, state television reported.

Tehran has consistently rejected UN demands that it halt uranium enrichment, a process which can provide fuel for nuclear reactors but also, in highly refined form, material for the core of a nuclear bomb.

In The Hague, former UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Wednesday that giving security guarantees to Iran could help persuade Tehran to scale down its nuclear ambitions and freeze uranium enrichment.

"To avoid Iran going for enrichment, one must go into the concerns they have ... they might be concerned by an attack of the US," Blix told journalists.

Blix is now chairman of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission (WMDC), an independent body that works to limit the dangers posed by WMD.

The West claims Iran is running a secret nuclear military program parallel to its civilian one, an allegation strongly denied by Tehran which says its nuclear ambitions are entirely peaceful and aimed at producing electricity.

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