BRUSSELS (AP) -- EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Monday he hoped to meet with Iranian nuclear negotiators this week, warning that time for Tehran to cooperate was running out as world powers consider new sanctions at the United Nations.

Solana said top Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili and his assistants ""are ready to meet.""
""I have been in touch with the Iranians. I hope that they will find time in their calendar to meet this week,"" he told reporters heading into talks with European Union foreign ministers.
""At the moment we are paving the way for negotiations,"" Solana said, but warned ""we're pretty late in the month already"" to find a breakthrough in the talks.
Solana was briefing EU foreign ministers in the dispute over Iran's nuclear program about whether to push for new sanctions to try and force Iran to stop enriching uranium.
France and Britain are pushing their EU counterparts to accept new penalties to push Iran to stop enrichment work.
A report released last week by the UN's nuclear watchdog agency found Iran has been generally truthful in the information it has provided the agency about aspects of its past nuclear activities.
""It's very difficult to make a judgment, but I think it's fair to say that it is a positive step and that there is still much work to be done,"" Solana said.
The UN nuclear agency report is one of two on Iran's nuclear program this month.
The other will be presented to the UN Security Council in New York by Solana, who has been tasked with trying to persuade Iran to accept offers of cooperation on civil atomic power projects in return for an enrichment suspension by Iran.
After Solana delivers his report, expected later this month, the five permanent Security Council members — Russia, China, Britain, France and the United States — plus Germany are expected to decide to move ahead with a resolution on new sanctions