Russia and Iran to work on resumption of six-party talks

Moscow: Russia and Iran will try to resume six-party talks on Iran's nuclear programme, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday after President Vladimir Putin met Iran's nuclear envoy.

Russia had hoped Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani's visit would lead to a resolution of the nuclear crisis, but it appeared as though Moscow had failed to persuade Tehran to change its stance on halting nuclear enrichment.

"There is an agreement that our contacts will be continued and, of course, we will work on achieving our common goal - resumption of six-party talks," Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.

Larijani did not make any public statements on Saturday, and officials at the Iranian Embassy in Moscow could not be reached for comment.

The six powers - the United States, Britain, China, France, Russia and Germany - made a proposal in June for economic, technological and political cooperation if Iran halted work the West suspects is designed to produce atomic weapons, but Tehran insists is for electricity generation.

They gave an end-August deadline to halt uranium enrichment. Iran did not comply and since then the West has been working on imposing sanctions.

"Within days we will resume contacts with the participants of the sextet who offered some ideas to Iran as a basis to negotiations," Lavrov said.

"Iran has responded to these proposals and we think that with some good will ... there is a possibility to find mutually acceptable grounds for the talks' resumption," he added. He gave no details.

Earlier Larijani met Lavrov and National Security Council head Igor Ivanov, with whom he spent five hours in discussion.

On Thursday, Russia's UN ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said Moscow might be able to break the deadlock. But analysts doubted whether the talks had brought the compromise needed.

Vladimir Sotnikov, research associate at Oriental Studies Institute in Moscow, said: "There seems to be no breakthrough in Lavrov's carefully phrased remarks. It was just another clarification of each other's positions."