Solana met Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Vienna on Saturday and Sunday. An EU diplomat told Reuters after the meeting that Larijani offered a two-month suspension of the enrichment program.

Suspension of enrichment-related activities is a precondition set by France, Britain, Germany, Russia, the United States and China for talks with Tehran on a package of economic and other incentives in exchange for Iran scrapping the program.

"Iran ... has accepted to talk about the question of suspension. That for us is a positive development," spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei told a regular news briefing.

Iran has so far ignored an August 31UN Security Council deadline to suspend its enrichment program, which Tehran says will only be used for civilian purposes, not to make atomic weapons as many Western countries suspect.

In Brussels, Iran and the Middle East peace process were at the top of the agenda as the foreign ministers gathered for their talks in Brussels, despite the cancellation of a key EU-Iran meeting the previous day.

Iran's stance over its nuclear ambitions should be taken with a healthy dose of mistrust, Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot warned here yesterday, ahead of a day of talks with his 24 EU counterparts.

"I think healthy distrust is the best recipe here," Bot told reporters.

The bloc is maintaining its line of "dialogue and firmness" on the nuclear issue although the planned meeting between EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iranian negotiator Ali Larijani was scrapped, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said.

"Nothing is lost," he added as he arrived for the meeting.

"To talk of sanctions (against Iran) is easy but it's not the solution, we must persuade the Iranians to renew the dialogue with us," he said.

The EU foreign ministers were to be briefed over lunch by Solana on his contacts with Larijani which he described as "constructive" after the two men met in Vienna last weekend.

The pair had been due to meet again on Thursday, but those talks were postponed without a new date announced and with no explanation.

The United States acknowledged Thursday that it will face tough resistance from some of its key allies as it presses for UN sanctions against Iran over its suspect nuclear programme.

Iran's refusal to comply with UN demands that it suspend uranium enrichment activities some fear could produce nuclear weapons is set to feature high on the agenda when world leaders gather in New York next week for the UN General Assembly.

US officials have for weeks been expressing strong confidence that the permanent Security Council members -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- will swiftly reach agreement on political and economic sanctions designed to force Tehran to abandon its enrichment programme.