Japan plans to invite Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki to Tokyo late next month in hopes of persuading his nation to cease its nuclear program, according to sources in the Foreign Ministry.

The International Atomic Energy Agency plans to hold an emergency board meeting this month with an eye to referring the Iran nuclear issue to the U.N. Security Council.

Japan, which currently chairs the IAEA Board of Governors, maintains friendly ties with Iran.

Trying to arrange talks between Foreign Minister Taro Aso and Mottaki indicates Japan's hopes of playing a role in resolving the nuclear issue.

"Precisely because the situation is tense, we should not cut off dialogue," a senior Foreign Ministry official said on customary condition of anonymity.

It would be Mottaki's first visit to Japan since becoming foreign minister in August. He was Iran's ambassador to Japan from 1995 to 1999.

Apart from Iran's nuclear program, Aso is expected to talk with Mottaki about starting operations of an oil development project in Azadegan, southern Iran, one of the world's largest oil fields. Japan and Iran agreed on the project in February 2004.

Japan has maintained senior working-level dialogue with Iran even since hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office last August.

In September, then Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura met Mottaki in New York and the two countries held vice ministerial talks in Tehran in December.