On May 28, US and Iranian diplomats met for four hours in Baghdad to discuss security in Iraq. Afterward, Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi told The Associated Press that the two sides would meet again in less than a month.

On Sunday, however, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters that Iran had not agreed to a second round this month.

He said the Iranians were studying the results of the May 28 talks and would decide later whether to continue them.

The talks last month were the first formal, scheduled meeting between Iranian and American officials since the United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran following the Nov 4, 1979 seizure of the US Embassy by radical students.

Shortly after the May meeting, Iran's senior security official, Ali Larijani, said the US-Iran dialogue could continue only if Americans offer new solutions to the security crisis in Iraq.

Iran considers the presence of US troops in Iraq as a threat to its security and has demanded they leave. Washington, meanwhile, accuses Iran of arming and financing Shia militias fighting American and Iraqi troops in Iraq charges Iran denies.

Meanwhile, Iran has condemned a G-8 warning that it could face more sanctions over its controversial nuclear programme, the country's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Mohamad Ali Hosseini, the spokesman of Iran's foreign ministry, said Iran welcomed diplomatic solutions "to answer questions and possible ambiguities over its peaceful nuclear programme," IRNA said late Saturday.

But Hosseini said the G-8 statement went against what he called the intent of the international community, to work on the nuclear issue through talks and negotiation.

He reiterated that Iran would not accept demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, which can be used both to generate energy and to create a nuclear weapon, before any negotiations.

The Group of Eight indudstrialised countries said Friday they would "support adopting further measures" if Iran refused to put a halt to its uranium enrichment programme.

The G-8 leaders, at a summit in Germany, said they would back UN Security Council moves on a third set of sanctions against Iran if Tehran failed to suspend the programme.

On Tuesday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran's nuclear programme could not be stopped, and that any Western attempt to force a halt to uranium enrichment would be like playing "with the lion's tail."

The Security Council first imposed sanctions on Iran in December and modestly increased them in March over Iran's refusal to suspend enrichment.

Iran says it is within its rights to pursue uranium enrichment for peaceful purposes.

The United States and some of its allies fear that Iran is pursuing a nuclear weapons programme under cover of its civilian nuclear activities.

Iran denies that and says its programme is aimed at peaceful purposes such as generating electrical energy.