Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, today offered conciliation over Iran’s nuclear programme, saying that talks had to allow Tehran to "preserve a sense of national dignity".

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Mr Straw said negotiations with Iran had been extremely tough, but that diplomacy was the only way forward.

His comments came ahead of a meeting of the foreign ministers of the five permanent UN Security Council members, plus Germany, aimed at agreeing a policy to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Mr Straw said they would decide then what kind of resolution to put to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which meets on Thursday.

"We have to have a bargain which enables both sides to come out of it with their head held high and not low," he said.

"It’s hard going. It’s hard to think of another government which is harder to negotiate with," he added, but "it’s the only way through."

Mr Straw said Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani would meet with British and other officials to discuss the issue on Monday.

European Union negotiators Britain, France and Germany, supported by the United States, have called for the nuclear dispute to be referred to the UN Security Council via the IAEA.

The crisis arose earlier this month after Iran broke seals at nuclear facilities to resume sensitive research on enriching uranium, which can provide the fuel for power stations but also, in highly enriched form, for weapons.

The EU trio said then that talks with Tehran had reached a "dead end" over Iran’s programme, which Tehran says is for strictly peaceful civilian nuclear power.

Mr Straw said Iran had not yet restarted enrichment work, but insisted there was a growing consensus, including from China and Russia which traditionally have been reluctant to take action, that Tehran had to provide guarantees on the nature of its programme.

"We have to judge the right course in a fast-changing situation," he said. "We need some movement by Iran."

Mr Straw also took pains to underline that Iran had been badly treated by the international community in the past, notably the West’s support for its former regime under the Shah and backing for Iraq which fought a bloody 10-year war against its neighbour.

It was that lingering sense of "humiliation", he said, that explained, at least in part, Tehran’s position.

"The more I know about Iran, the more I understand about the extent of this humiliation, and the fact that Iran, historically and today, feels friendless," Mr Straw said.