The United States and more than a dozen allies are pushing the UN nuclear watchdog to approve a resolution that will give Tehran until October 31st to prove it has no clandestine nuclear weapons programme.
Japan, Turkey, Britain, France and Germany joined forces with Washington and nine other nations today to co-sponsor a draft demanding that Iran demonstrate full compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
The US says Iran has violated the treaty.
The toughly-worded draft resolution, circulated at a closed-door meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) 35-nation Board of Governors in Vienna, also called on Iran to "suspend all further uranium enrichment activities".
Iran's foreign minister warned that the Islamic republic would "review" cooperation with the UN watchdog body if its governing board came down too hard on Tehran.
Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran's ambassador to the IAEA said the decision of France and Germany to co-sponsor the resolution was clearly an attempt to ingratiate themselves with Washington after refusing to back the US-led war on Iraq.
"They are now taking Iran as a scapegoat to bring themselves together," he said, rejecting the idea of a deadline.
IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei said there was "broad agreement" among board members in favour of a deadline for Tehran to come clean about its nuclear programme.