State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would sit down with her counterparts from Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany to discuss the deadlocked UN talks on Iran.

"I think the focus will be on the medium to long-term issues about how to get Iran ... back into the mainstream of the non-proliferation framework and how to get it to roll back its program," McCormack said.

Britain had earlier announced the Berlin meeting of the so-called P-5 plus Germany, to be held at the start of Rice's four-day trip to Europe that will also take her to France and Britain.

Washington is seeking to end an impasse over a draft UN Security Council presidential statement that would call Iran to account for its suspected nuclear weapons activities. Russia and China oppose tough language.

Russian and US negotiators worked through the weekend to try to thrash out a compromise but McCormack didn't report any progress.

"We're continuing to work the language," he said. "We obviously haven't come to a consensus on language yet."

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