Iranian and foreign nuclear experts gathered in Istanbul on Monday to discuss Tehran's controversial atomic program, a European Union spokeswoman said.

"The meeting is taking place at the expert-level as planned," said Maja Kocijancic, spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is leading talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany.

The United States condemned the Syrian violations along Lebanese border, lashing out at warnings by the regime of President Bashar Assad that its forces would fire into Lebanon if "terrorist gangs" continued to infiltrate the country.

“The international community has to exert more efforts to isolate Lebanon from the Syrian crisis and prevent it from spilling over,” a U.S. diplomat told the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Sunday.

The Free Syrian Army's Political and Media Coordinator, Louay Meqdad, said on Sunday that rebels are ready to cease fire and withdraw into Syrian territories if the Lebanese army guarantees that it will control the border with the neighboring country.

Arab countries on Friday tabled a resolution lamenting the spiraling violence in Syria and demanding that the regime cooperate with a U.N. probe into rights violations in the war-torn country.

Two years into the conflict that the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people and forced more than one million more to flee to neighboring countries, the draft resolution blamed Damascus for most of the violations taking place and demanded that it "cooperate fully" with a U.N. inquiry that has yet to gain access to Syria.

A top Syrian regime official thanked the BRICS group of emerging powers on Friday for its support, which she said had prevented Western military intervention and the "destruction" of the country.

Bouthaina Shaaban, a cabinet-level adviser to Syrian President Bashar Assad, told reporters in New Delhi that Damascus was grateful to the BRICS countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

North Korea responded to new U.N. sanctions Friday with fresh threats of nuclear war, the scrapping of peace pacts with South Korea and the severing of a hotline with Seoul.

The latest measures announced by Pyongyang ramped up tensions on the Korean peninsula that have surged since the North staged a third nuclear test last month.

The U.N. Security Council on Wednesday held a minute's silence before the start of it's meetings Wednesday for late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Russia's U.N. ambassador Vitaly Churkin, Security Council president for March, offered "deepest condolences" to the people of Venezuela for Chavez's death on Tuesday. He said the gesture by the 15-member council was to "honor the memory" of the controversial Venezuelan leader.

The United States and China have reached agreement on a new draft sanctions resolution to punish North Korea for its latest nuclear test, U.N. diplomats said late Monday.

The U.N. Security Council announced that it will hold closed consultations on North Korea and non-proliferation at 11 a.m. (1600 GMT) Tuesday. The diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because no official announcement has been made, said the United States is expected to circulate a draft resolution to the full council at the meeting. Council members are then expected to send the draft to their capitals for review.

The head of the U.N. atomic agency called Monday on Iran to allow immediate access to the Parchin military base where it suspects nuclear weapons research took place.

Yukiya Amano said that this should be granted "without further delay" and without waiting for stalled talks to conclude an agreement on investigating other alleged "westernization" activities.

Lebanese leaders must adhere to their declared neutrality on the Syrian civil war amid warnings that the fighting could spill over the border, U.N. leader Ban Ki-moon warned Wednesday.

"The reported involvement of certain Lebanese elements in the conflict in Syria is contrary to Lebanon's policy of disassociation," Ban said in a report to the U.N. Security Council on the implementation of resolution 1701.