Wednesday, March 15 2006 09:27 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

United Nations: The UN Security Council will hold formal consultations on the Iranian nuclear issue Friday but will not debate a text until next week, Peru's UN ambassador Oswaldo de Rivero has said.

The envoy spoke to reporters after attending an informal meeting of the 15-member council at the French UN mission yesterday(Mar 14,2006) to review a draft statement on Iran's nuclear stance prepared by France and Britain.

Asked when the Council planned to hold its first formal session on the Iranian nuclear crisis since it received an assessment report on the Iranian programme from Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the UN nuclear watchdog, de Rivero said: 'Friday'.

Qatar's UN envoy Abdulaziz al-Nasser confirmed that the council would meet informally tomorrow and formally on Friday.

De Rivero stressed however that a discussion of the draft statement currently being thrashed out by the council's five permanent members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States would not take place 'before next week'.

"We had a very good meeting. We discussed the elements that France and the UK put down," Britain's UN envoy Emyr Jones Parry said.

"These are now being referred to capitals and I expect we will have an early meeting later this week to see what the reactions are with a view to making progress on the text," he said.

"I felt there was a very constructive discussion," Japan's UN ambassador Kenzo Oshima said.

"We'll probably get together informally Thursday afternoon," US ambassador John Bolton said, adding that the so-called Perm-5 would have a fifth informal session today(Mar 15,2006).