Iran says still gap in positions after nuclear talks

                 
Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said on Saturday there was some distance between the positions of Tehran and world powers but its disputed uranium enrichment could be a subject for confidence-building cooperation.          

Saeed Jalili spoke after two days of talks in the Kazakh city of Almaty failed to achieve substantive progress in the decade-old dispute over Iran's nuclear program.           

"We proposed our plan of action and the other party was not ready and they asked for some time to study the idea," Jalili told a news conference. He said was now up to the powers to demonstrate willingness to take confidence-building steps.            

Iran and six global powers failed to reach a compromise at negotiations in Kazakhstan but took a step forward, the Russian negotiator said after the talks aimed to ease concerns over Tehran's nuclear program ended.              

"Certainly, these talks were a step forward," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told reporters. But he said:  "We could not reach a compromise this time," and he added that it was premature to name a date and venue for further talks.          

World powers and Iran remain far apart despite two days of intensive talks over Tehran's nuclear program, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said after the negotiations ended.           

"Over two days of talks we had long and intensive discussions on the issues addressed in our confidence-building proposal," Ashton told a news conference in the Kazakh city of Almaty, where the negotiations took place.              

Earlier, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton - the six world powers' lead negotiator - held a bilateral meeting with her Iranian counterpart, an official involved in the talks said.                    

With a presidential election due in Iran in June, hopes for a breakthrough were slim even before the first day of talks when Iran declined to accept or reject an offer of modest sanctions relief in exchange for curbing its most sensitive nuclear work.                  

Iran's deputy negotiator Ali Bagheri said Iran had given a "detailed response to all the questions".                 
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said: "Iran has given an answer to the proposals of the six powers. It is the kind of answer that creates more questions ... But this shows that the negotiations are serious."                    

FAILED ROUND                   

Without substantial progress in coming months, Western governments are likely to impose new economic sanctions on Iran.                    

"It seems that instead of narrowing, the gap between the sides actually widened," said Ali Vaez, an Iran expert with the International Crisis Group.                                

In their second meeting with Iranian negotiators in Almaty this year, the six nations - the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany - tried on Friday to persuade Iran to abandon its higher-grade uranium enrichment, as a first step to a broader agreement.                

But deputy negotiator Bagheri indicated that Iran wanted to know how and when its main concerns would be addressed before it agreed to any intermediate steps.

Iran, which denies seeking nuclear weapons, wants major economic sanctions - including on its oil exports and banks - lifted and its right to enrich uranium publicly recognized.

The six nations, however, say this right only applies when nuclear work is carried out under sufficient oversight by U.N. inspectors, something Iran has refused to grant. Since 2006, the U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran stop the process.                           

The powers said in February that they wanted Iran to convince them it was serious about a final deal by stopping enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, an important technological advance en route to producing weapons-grade material, ship out some stockpiles and shutter a facility where such work is done.                     
In return they offered relief on sanctions on Iranian petrochemicals and trade in gold and other precious metals.                                       



REUTERS