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UNITED NATIONS — Britain is calling for new talks with Iran about its suspect nuclear program but will push for militarily enforceable U.N. Security Council sanctions if those talks do not make progress, according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

The proposal is angled toward Russia and China, allies of Tehran who staunchly oppose firm Security Council action.

Senior diplomats from six key nations that have been struggling to find a way to deal with Iran’s suspect nuclear program met Monday at U.N. headquarters.

Representatives from the five veto-wielding council nations — the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — and Germany will try to overcome differences on a statement demanding a quick report on Iran’s nuclear program.

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said earlier that Monday’s meeting "will basically consider the longer-range issues, although obviously in the capitals in Moscow and Beijing, certainly, they will now have a look” at the latest text of the Security Council statement, and hopefully the senior diplomats will have instructions "that will allow us to make progress.”

At least 39 killed as violence that has swept Iraq since shrine bombing continues

BAGHDAD — At least 39 people were killed by insurgents and shadowy sectarian gangs, police reported Monday — continuing the wave of violence that has left nearly 1,000 Iraqis dead since the bombing last month of a Shiite Muslim shrine.

As the Iraq war entered its fourth year, police found the bodies of at least 15 more people — including that of a 13-year-old girl — dumped in and near Baghdad. The discoveries marked the latest in a string of execution-style killings that have become an almost daily event as Sunni and Shiite extremists settle scores. Sectarian killings have swept across Iraq since the Feb. 22 bombing of a Shiite Muslim shrine in Samarra.

An Associated Press tally, including the deaths reported Monday, put the toll at 993 since the golden dome atop the Askariya shrine was left in rubble by two bombers, who are believed to remain at large.

Among those killed in scattered violence Monday were 10 policemen, who are prime targets for insurgents, most of them Sunni militants, trying to break the will of the mainly Shiite police force.

As night fell on Monday, a bomb struck a coffee shop in northern Baghdad, killing at least three civilians and injuring 23 others. The bomb was left in a plastic bag inside the shop in a market area of the Azamiyah neighborhood, police Maj. Falah al-Mohammadewi said.<