Vienna- There is little members of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can do at their meeting on September 22 to get Iran to halt its nuclear programme and show more transparency.

Diplomats said it was up to the United Nations Security Council in New York, rather than the IAEA Board of Governors in Vienna, to take further steps.

Top diplomats of permanent Security Council members China, Britain, France, Russia and the United States, as well as Germany, are set to gather in Washington on Friday to discuss further steps regarding Iran.

IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said in his latest report that he had made no progress on clearing allegations about past Iranian nuclear weapons-related efforts.

The 35 countries on the IAEA board will start their one-week meeting on Monday to discuss not only Iran, but also the ongoing investigation on allegations about an undeclared Syrian nuclear programme and developments in North Korea.

According to the latest IAEA report, Tehran has not provided evidence that documents obtained by the agency on past uranium conversion, explosives testing and missile work are forgeries and are not related to nuclear weapons development.

In defiance of Security Council resolutions, Iran also continues to operate and expand its uranium enrichment facility in Natanz.

While Iran says it needs enriched uranium to fuel a nuclear reactor, the United States and other Western countries are worried that the nuclear material could one day be used for an atom bomb.

The IAEA board could do "nothing" about the current standstill, a European diplomat said.

"The important resolution is the resolution that needs to be passed in New York," a western diplomat said. Meanwhile, there is little expectation in Vienna that the IAEA board will issue a resolution on Iran next week.

So far, the Security Council has passed four resolutions and three rounds of economic sanctions to push Iran to halt its nuclear programme and answer questions about past activities.

However, negotiations on the sanctions passed so far have been difficult, as Russia and China are not convinced that punishment yields positive results.

Iran's leadership is unimpressed by the threat of new punitive measures.

"Sanctions are not important at all, and we ignore them as they [the world powers] have made such threats in the last three years and nothing happened," Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said earlier this week that his country would only answer any more outstanding questions if the IAEA treated its work in Iran as routine.

Despite their threats of new measures, the permanent Security Council members and Germany say that their offer on comprehensive talks with Tehran on nuclear energy and economic cooperation is still valid, on the condition that Iran halts its uranium enrichment.

So far, the group's efforts to find a mechanism to open such talks - by halting the expansion of the Natanz facility and by not passing new sanctions - have not been accepted by Iran's leaders.

Besides Iran, the IAEA board is also set to hear Elbaradei's interim report on Syria, which is suspected of having built an undeclared nuclear reactor with North Korean help.

Agency inspectors went to the alleged site in June, which was bombed by Israeli warplanes last year. The IAEA's work in Syria is based on US intelligence.

Although samples were taken at the location, results are still outstanding and no final assessment will be possible unless Syria gives the IAEA access to further sites, several diplomats said.

North Korea, which announced Friday it was preparing to restart its nuclear reactor, will also be on the board's agenda. IAEA inspectors are permanently stationed at the Yongbyon nuclear complex to monitor that the reactor and other facilities remain shut down. (dpa)