"They cannot force Iran to suspend enrichment through the resolution," he said.

But he said, as he has previously, that Iran would not suspend enrichment.

It has been called on to suspend enrichment.

During this period, European officials believe, it continued to work in secret on nuclear research, having promised to suspend uranium enrichment.

They say they will continue to demand that Iran suspend enrichment, or face ever tougher sanctions.

Everyone agreed that Iran had not met the most crucial requirement: that it suspend uranium enrichment.

The Europeans offered a trade-off: agree to inspections and suspend uranium enrichment, in return for future access to civilian nuclear technology.

Iran has said it will respond by Tuesday to a European-led offer of incentives to suspend enrichment.

And if Iran has indeed held out the possibility of having talks about suspending uranium enrichment, as some reports indicated, that could further fracture the coalition.

If Iran again refuses to suspend enrichment, the six nations will begin drawing up a third Security Council sanctions resolution.