The European Union will continue to pursue a "duel strategy" of negotiations and sanctions on Iran's nuclear activity, the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Geneva on Wednesday.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, speaks to the press while attending a news conference at residency of German's Ambassador in Tehran on Saturday June 14, 2008.(Xinhua, File Photo) 

"With Iran, we have a dual strategy: on the one hand negotiations ... and at the same time action through the United Nations," Solana told reporters after addressing a disarmament conference in Geneva.

Solana said UN sanctions and diplomacy would run in parallel on the Iranian nuclear issue, but he preferred a diplomatic solution to the problem.

"We want to have a solution which is diplomatically negotiated," he said.

The 27-member EU on Monday decided at a meeting in Luxembourg to freeze the assets of Iran's largest bank, Bank Melli, and impose a travel ban on high-level experts dealing with Iran's nuclear program.

(Xinhua News Agency June 26, 2008)