Senior officials from six world powers will meet in Europe next week to discuss new U.N. sanctions against Iran over its refusal to abandon key nuclear work, the U.S. State Department said on Wednesday, reported Reuters.

“They will talk about elements of language that will comprise a (U.N.) sanctions resolution,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in announcing the meeting, whose exact location in Europe is not yet fixed.

U.S. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns would represent the United States at the October 17 meeting, also attended by political directors from the other five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, Russia, France, Britain and China, as well as Germany.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates will be in Moscow on Friday for talks with their Russian counterparts on Iran and other issues.

“The fact of the matter is that the world is convinced, to its satisfaction, that Iran is on its way to developing a nuclear weapon. It (Iran) does not have a peaceful nuclear energy program as it says it does,” said McCormack when asked about Putin’s comments.