The EU has agreed to try to clarify Iran's stance on halting uranium enrichment within two weeks.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan held talks in Tehran today to try to settle the standoff.
Mr Annan's visit to Iran takes place two days after the International Atomic Energy Agency reported that Tehran had failed to meet the Security Council's deadline to suspend sensitive work.
The US, which accuses Iran of seeking atomic bombs, said yesterday it was consulting European governments about possible sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
The EU has indicated it wants to see more dialogue with Tehran, which says its atomic activity is aimed at producing power.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, next week to try to clear up ambiguities in Tehran's 21-page reply to the major powers' offer of broad cooperation if it stops the nuclear work.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel said after the 25 EU ministers discussed the Iranian issue in Finland today: 'We give Solana two weeks for his clarification talks.'
But Mr Solana told reporters: 'There's no deadline, whenever we finish ... We are going to start in the coming days and I hope that it will be very short. We don't need many meetings.'
Other EU ministers said he would report back to them in Brussels on 15 September, and they had agreed not to take any action against Iran before then.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained defiant today and was quoted by the ISNA student news agency as saying: 'Our nation is a supporter of peace but it will not retreat an iota from its right to nuclear technology.'
Mr Annan met Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Mr Larijani, who is also the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, earlier today. He will meet President Ahmadinejad tomorrow.
