"Our objective continues to be a comprehensive long-term negotiated solution which restores international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program," the statement said. It was released by China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The statement, identical to a draft earlier obtained by Reuters, was read to reporters by European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who hosted a meeting of the six powers at the EU mission in New York.

The group, known as the P5+1, united in June to pass tough new U.N. sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, which Western countries fear is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. Tehran says the program is purely for peaceful purposes.

Since then, Western nations have repeatedly urged Iran to return to the negotiating table, but with little success. Officials from the six said there had been attempts to contact Iran about a possible future meeting.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said after the meeting that, "Now is the time for Iran to engage in real negotiation, in actual constructive dialogue, about its whole nuclear programme."