"It is inconclusive in the sense that we didn't make any decisions right away," Russian delegate Sergei Ryabkov told reporters after the three-hour meeting of diplomats from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.

The meeting came after Iran ignored President Barack Obama's Dec 31, 2009, deadline to respond to an offer from the six powers of economic and political incentives in exchange for halting its nuclear enrichment program.

The European Union, which hosted the meeting at its New York office, said that despite the lack of a concrete outcome, further sanctions were now on the big-power agenda and the six would be in contact again soon to continue the discussions.

All the powers except China sent top level Foreign Ministry officials known as "political directors" to Saturday's meeting. They had hoped to reach an agreement on whether to begin drafting a new Security Council resolution on a fourth round of sanctions against Tehran.