EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani in Vienna on Saturday as the last bid to avoid the UN sanctions on Tehran over its nuclear program.

The meeting is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. (1500 GMT) Saturday, Solana's spokeswoman confirmed.

The talks were originally planned for Wednesday but were postponed abruptly. The EU hopes to persuade Tehran through diplomatic channels to halt its uranium enrichment in exchange for a package of incentives.

The United States has accused Iran of covertly developing nuclear weapons and has been pushing for UN sanctions against the Islamic republic.

Insisting that its nuclear programme is a peaceful effort to generate electricity, Iran has defied a UN deadline of Aug. 31 to stop the enrichment of uranium.

Senior officials from the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany met in Berlin on Thursday in an attempt to seek a solution to the thorny nuclear issue.