Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said in Madrid on Thursday he would meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in two days. "Two days after," Larijani said, when asked by Reuters when he would see Solana, but he did not say where the talks would take place. The Solana-Larijani meeting was originally planned for Vienna on Wednesday but was postponed at the last minute, EU diplomats said. Senior diplomats from six world powers were due to meet in Berlin on Thursday to discuss what to do with Iran after it ignored a U.N. Security Council deadline to freeze its nuclear enrichment programme. The negotiators from Germany and the five permanent Security Council members -- the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China -- were expected to consider the possibility of imposing sanctions on the Islamic republic for continuing to enrich uranium past the Aug. 31 deadline, diplomats said. Larijani, speaking at Madrid's Ritz Hotel, said he planned to meet Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan was also in the Ritz Hotel at the time for talks with a former Spanish prime minister, Felipe Gonzalez, but an Iranian official said Larijani had no plans to meet Annan. A Spanish Foreign Ministry spokesman said Larijani would meet Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos and pay a protocol visit to Zapatero. He made no comment on the purpose of Larijani's visit but added: "He is not here to negotiate, because Spain is not a negotiator. Spain's position is exactly the same as the European Union's."
