UNITED NATIONS, March 8 (Xinhuanet) -- The UN Security Council's five permanent members held closed consultations late Wednesday on the way the powerful organ would take in handling the crisis over Iran's disputed nuclear program.

    The meeting took place after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wrapped up its meeting in Vienna, at which the agency's 35-nation board of governors discussed IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei's assessment report on Iran's nuclear program.

    The IAEA's board of governors decided in a Feb. 4 resolution to report Iran's controversial nuclear plan to the Security Council after its meeting in early March. UN officials said council members had received ElBaradei's assessment report.

    After the closed consultations, Chinese UN Ambassador Wang Guangya told reporters that another such discussion had been scheduled for Friday afternoon among the five veto-holding permanent council members -- the United States, China, France, Britain and Russia.

    Other council diplomats said Wednesday's meeting touched upon elements of a non-binding presidential statement expected to be adopted by the 15-nation body on the Iranian nuclear issue.

    Russian UN Ambassador Andrey Denisov said Britain had proposed requesting that ElBaradei present a new report to the council in two weeks on Iran's compliance with IAEA's resolutions. He said the proposal didn't give Iran enough time.

    It is widely expected that the council, whose resolutions are legally binding on all UN member states, will take up the Iranian nuclear issue next week.

    Earlier Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, when speaking to the press after a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York, reiterated that there is no military solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis.

    He also reaffirmed Russia's opposition to imposing sanctions on Iran, stressing that it has been proved in the recent history that sanctions, as a means to solve a crisis, can not achieve the goal.   Enditem