BERLIN (Reuters) - Senior officials from major powers will meet in Paris on Thursday to discuss the next steps in their showdown with Iran over its nuclear programme, a European diplomatic source said.

The source said representatives from Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States would attend the meeting.

Iran said last week it had received a letter from EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana urging new talks on its nuclear work.

Iran has questions following receipt of the letter and the powers would discuss how to respond to them, the source added, providing no other details.

The date and venue of the meeting could not be independently confirmed.

The West fears Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons and is pressing it to halt its uranium enrichment work, which can have both civilian and military purposes.

Tehran says it only wants to generate electricity and has ruled out freezing enrichment, drawing three rounds of United Nations sanctions since 2006.

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