AFP – EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Thursday he did not expect a "great breakthrough" in a first round of new talks to get Iran to heed UN to stop enriching uranium.
"We will not be in a position to make a great breakthrough during this visit," Solana told reporters ahead of a breakfast meeting with Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul.
"But we hope we will be able to continue," he said about more talks scheduled in two weeks.
Solana and Larijani said Wednesday they had made progress in their first talks since the UN Security Council imposed new sanctions on Iran to punish its continuing uranium enrichment, which makes fuel for civilian reactors but also the raw material for atom bombs.
"There are ideas on the table," Larijani told reporters late Wednesday after meeting for almost five hours with Solana.
"In about two weeks time again we would be having some more talks," Larijani said.
Solana, who represents six world powers Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States trying to start formal negotiations, said Thursday that the talks had been "constructive."
His spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said: "Our objective is to keep the process going" of talks rather than escalating confrontation.
She said that Solana and Larijani would meet together at their hotel after the breakfast with Gul. Solana is to leave Ankara later Thursday for Oslo for a meeting with NATO ministers.
Tehran denies US charges that it is trying to build nuclear weapons, saying its programme is a peaceful effort to generate civilian nuclear power.
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in Tehran Wednesday the Ankara talks had "two pillars, accepting Iran’s right of enrichment and addressing ambiguities and the issue of non-deviation," of nuclear material for military purposes.
"By paying attention to these two we can find a solution that is satisfactory for both sides. We hope that Mr. Solana has come to the talks with this intention," Mottaki said.
Last June the six world powers offered economic, technical and security benefits if Iran agreed to suspend uranium enrichment, but Tehran pressed ahead and negotiations never started.
In several rounds of talks, the last in February, Larijani and Solana had failed to find a way to start meetings with the six.
Gallach said there were "no changes in the position of the international community" against Iran’s enriching uranium and added that the priority was simply to "create conditions for the beginning of negotiations."
Solana and Larijani met for some three hours before breaking for a tete-a-tete working dinner. The two men ate alone except for a translator at a small table at the restaurant at the hotel where they are staying.
The two could be seen huddled over papers, taking notes while they talked.
Diplomats had said before Wednesday’s meeting that there was little hope of a breakthrough given Iran’s steadfast refusal to freeze its enrichment work.
Diplomats told AFP that while everyone was trying to find a formula to start formal talks, the two sides remain far apart in the crisis that began in 2002 when it was revealed that Iran was secretly building nuclear facilities.
But the six world powers were ready to compromise and give Iran a chance to edge its way slowly into stopping uranium enrichment, the diplomats said.
One diplomat said a new idea would be for Iran to declare a moratorium on moving beyond enrichment activities it has already started, opening the way for further talks with Solana while the UN holds off on further sanctions.
Non-proliferation expert Gary Samore told AFP by telephone from Washington that Tehran wants the EU to agree to set up an international consortium to process fuel for Iran inside the country.
The major powers want such a consortium to operate outside the Islamic republic.
Tehran faces a new Security Council deadline in one month, after which more sanctions could be imposed.