Iran sanctions talks Saturday in New York

(UNITED NATIONS) - Top officials from six leading powers will meet at the European Union mission in New York Saturday to mull new sanctions on Iran over its nuclear defiance, a diplomat said Tuesday.

The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the political directors from the United States, Russia, China, Britain France and Germany would huddle throughout the morning Saturday but were not expected to issue a statement afterwards.

"Everybody will show up with different expectations: The Americans want targeted sanctions against Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, the French want sanctions targeting Iran's insurance and banking sectors and the Chinese are against new sanctions," he noted.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Monday told reporters on a flight to Hawaii that Washington was mulling sanctions targeting the Tehran leadership's political and commercial base, but added no decision had been made.

But last week, China's UN ambassador Zhang Yesui said it was too early to contemplate new sanctions and called for more diplomacy.

Three sets of Security Council sanctions have already been imposed on Iran over its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment, which lies at the heart of international fears about the nature of its nuclear program.

Enrichment is used to make nuclear fuel, but also to produce the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

The six world powers gave Tehran until the end of 2009 to accept a deal brokered by the UN nuclear watchdog agency to ship most of Iran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) abroad to be further refined into reactor fuel by Russia and France.

But the deadline was ignored, prompting talk of fresh sanctions against the Islamic republic. Iran has meanwhile countered with a proposal of a staged swap of LEU for nuclear reactor fuel.