Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing met in Beijing on Thursday with visiting Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

 

Larijani, also secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, arrived here on Thursday morning from Tehran on a day-long visit.

 

Larijani is expected to hold a press conference at the Iranian embassy in Beijing after having another meeting with State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan on Thursday afternoon. He is scheduled to leave Beijing in the evening, according to sources in the embassy.

 

Iran is facing referral to the United Nations Security Council for possible sanctions over Western fears that it may seek to build an atomic bomb.

 

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will convene an emergency session of its board of governors on February 2-3 to vote on a referral at the request of the EU, after Iran resumed its research on uranium enrichment -- the most sensitive part of the nuclear fuel cycle -- earlier this month.

 

(Xinhua News Agency January 26, 2006)