MOSCOW, May 15 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday urged mediators to give Iran security guarantees in a bid to settle the nuclear issue, news agencies reported.

    "The Sextet (of mediators) could make the next step and clearly place concrete proposals and security guarantees for Iran on the negotiating table," Interfax quoted Lavrov as saying after talks with his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Yekaterinburg.

    He also asked the mediators, including Russia, China, the United States, France, Britain and Germany, to "give Iran a decent and equitable place in the talks on the settlement of all problems in the Middle East."

    The United States and its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program. Iran has denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

    A delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Monday began a third round of negotiations with Iran on Tehran's disputed nuclear program.