LEAD: Iran-IAEA nuclear negotiations "constructive", says Tehran

Jan 31, 2012, 17:54 GMT

Tehran - The three-day negotiations of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) team with Iran was 'constructive,' Fars semi-official news agency reported Tuesday.

'The negotiations between the two sides were held in a positive and constructive atmosphere,' Fars quoted sources in the Iranian Atomic Energy as saying.

Fars further said that the two sides also agreed to hold further meetings in the future. The report gave no further details.

The IAEA officials are to leave Iran late Tuesday after three days of talks with Iranian officials, all held behind closed doors.

It remains unclear precisely what the two sides discussed and whether the IAEA team had inspected any nuclear sites.

The ISNA news agency on Sunday reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi had granted the six IAEA officials permission to inspect all nuclear sites and offered to let them stay longer than three days.

IAEA chief inspector Herman Nackaerts and his team were reported to have met Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saedi Jalili and atomic chief Fereydoun Abbasi to discuss the alleged military dimensions of Iran's nuclear programme.

Iran has for the past 15 years constantly rejected charges by the West that it is developing a covert nuclear weapons programme.

The visit by the IAEA team is widely seen as the last chance for diplomacy in the nuclear dispute.

The IAEA mission will clarify whether the nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers - Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the United States - can resume.

Jalili will reportedly send EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who leads the nuclear negotiations, a letter about a date and venue for the next round of talks.

Iran has said it is ready to resume the talks but the world powers want a clear agenda and that Iran temporarily suspends uranium enrichment until it can prove that it is not developing a nuclear bomb.

Those conditions have been rejected by Iran.

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