The great powers moved today to rescue the diplomatic drive to halt Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme, after it was derailed by a row with Russia over Georgia.

Foreign ministers from the six big powers known as the “E3+3” met briefly on Iran at the United Nations headquarters just days after Russia had refused to attend such a meeting.

The six powers - Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States - agreed to seek a new UN Security Council resolution to keep their cooperation alive.

The three-paragraph draft resolution called on Iran "to fully comply, without delay, with its obligations" under previous UN decisions, but did not impose any new sanctions. Jean-Maurice Ripert, France's UN ambassador, said he expected a vote "very soon next week."

David Miliband, the foreign secretary, said the goal was to reaffirm the unity of the six powers and take forward the “twin-track strategy” of sticks and carrots “for further discussions and further steps.” He said foreign ministry political directors were having “extensive discussions about the next steps.”

Sean MacCormack, a US State Department spokesman, said a further ministerial meeting would be held “when the time is right.” Russia had originally balked at holding a ministerial meeting on Iran during this week’s UN General Assembly session because of tension over Georgia.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said Moscow’s stance was retaliation for Washington’s refusal to hold a ministerial meeting of the Group of Eight industrialised countries - a move to punish Russia for its invasion of Georgia.

“You cannot really have it both ways, punishing Russia by canceling the forums that are very important for the entire world at the same time demanding Russia’s cooperation on the issues that are of importance to you,” Mr Lavrov told the US Council on Foreign Relations on Wednesday.

Nevertheless, Germany’s foreign minister joined his counterparts from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council after they had breakfast yesterday with the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon.

The UN has imposed three rounds of travel and financial sanctions on Iran, but Teheran continues to reject demands that it suspend uranium enrichment.

An effort by the Western nations to inject muscular language into the new draft resolution was resisted by Russia, which insisted on a simple restatement of existing UN demands. “Our intention is to confirm all previous decisions,” Mr Lavrov told reporters.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran rejected charges that he was anti-Semitic after a UN speech in which he railed against “Zionist murderers” and claimed Zionists controlled international finance.

“As soon as anyone objects to the behavior of the Zionist regime, they’re accused of being anti-Semitic, whereas the Jewish people are not Zionists,” Mr Ahmadinejad told a dinner of religious groups in New York on Thursday night. “Zionism is a political party that has nothing to do with Jewish people.”

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