Irans Zarif says held good talks with Kerry, US calls for reduction...

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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday he had held good talks with his U.S. counterpart over Tehran's nuclear program, with less than a week to go before a July 20 deadline on reaching an agreement on ending the dispute.

However, "Washington needs to take a political decision... to end the deadlock," he said, without giving detail.

"We had a good exchange of views," Zarif said after meeting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Vienna, according to Iran's official news agency IRNA.

Zarif said serious discussions now needed to take place at the level of political directors, referring to senior foreign ministry officials leading the delegations.

For his part, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Tehran must reduce its capacity to make nuclear fuel if it wants to secure a long-term deal with six world powers that would bring an end to sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.

"We have made it crystal clear that the 19,000 (centrifuges) that are currently part of their program is too many," Kerry told reporters after three days of talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif. Without going into details, Kerry made clear that Iran's proposals so far have been insufficient, though he added: "We've made progress."

"It is clear we still have more work to do and our team will continue to work very hard to try to reach a comprehensive agreement that resolves the international community's concern," he said.

Iran and six world powers - the United States, France, Russia, China, Britain and Germany - are trying to narrow still wide differences over Iran's nuclear programme and reach a long-term agreement by a self-imposed July 20 deadline.

The powers want Tehran to significantly scale back its nuclear enrichment programme to make sure it cannot yield nuclear bombs. Iran's priority is to get sanctions that have severely damaged its oil-dependent economy lifted as soon as possible.

REUTERS

Iran's Zarif says held "good" talks with Kerry, US calls for reduction of nuclear fuel capacity