U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns will meet next week in Berlin with his counterparts from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia to draw up a package of sanctions against Iran, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Thursday.

The United States is expecting the UN Security Council to swiftly pass a new resolution laying out the punitive measures against Iran which failed to meet a Thursday deadline set by the UN Security Council for suspending a uranium enrichment and reprocessing program, McCormack said.

The Berlin meeting of the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany will discuss next Thursday "which sanctions will be contained in that resolution," the spokesman said.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who has been mediating with Iran in the nuclear standoff, is reportedly due to meet next Wednesday in Berlin with Tehran's main negotiator, Ali Larijani.

Source: Xinhua