Brussels, 17/01/2006 (Agence Europe) - Despite moving closer on the need for Iran to totally halt its uranium enrichment programme and return to the negotiating table with Europe, the meeting in London on Monday of negotiators from the EU3 (France, UK and Germany) and three standing members of the United Nations Security Council (United States, Russia and China) did not reach agreement on how to proceed with the Iranian nuclear issue (which Europe and the United States want to be referred to the UN Security Council). According to a spokesperson for the Foreign Office in London, the meeting did not reach final conclusions and the Chinese and Russians are still deciding what they are going to do at the special meeting of the decision-making board of the UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. Following a request from the EU3, the special meeting is expected to take place on 2 and 3 February. Meanwhile, the EU3, the US, Russia and China are continuing talks to decide how to proceed. Beijing seems to support reaffirming the IAEA's authority in the Iranian nuclear case, but is more reserved about the idea of sending the issue to the United Nations Security Council. The Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday that sanctions against Iran were not the best or the only way to settle the issue and there was still room for manoeuvre at the IAEA. After a meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow on Monday with the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, called for further diplomacy regarding Iran, warning against 'abrupt, erroneous steps' in the international community's handling of the crisis. He said Teheran has not definitively rejected Moscow's compromise proposal to set up a Russian-Iranian joint venture on Russian territory to provide fuel (enriched uranium) for Iran's nuclear programme. Russia will be meeting Iran again on 16 February.