Turkey's FM holds Iran talks on nuclear deadlock

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was holding talks on Tuesday with Iranian officials on a visit to Tehran aimed at resolving the deadlock over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme.

Turkey's FM holds Iran talks on nuclear deadlock ảnh 1
Iran test launches its Tondar short-range missile during war games in Qom, 120 kms south of Tehran, in 2009. (AFP Photo)

Davutoglu and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki were to address a joint press conference after their talks.

Turkey, which has good relations with its neighbour Iran, has offered to host the exchange of Iran's low-enriched uranium with 20 percent enriched uranium to be supplied by world powers to Tehran as part of a UN-drafted deal.

On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said several months of efforts by Ankara to broker a compromise had yet to produce results.

Tehran and world powers are locked in a stalemate over the UN-drafted deal which envisages shipping out Iran's LEU to France and Russia for further conversion into higher grade uranium.

Iranian officials want the exchange to take place inside the Islamic republic, a condition opposed by world powers.

The talks further deteriorated after Tehran announced last week that it has started to process the 20 percent enriched uranium at its Natanz facility in central Iran.

Iran says it needs the higher level of enrichment to fuel a nuclear reactor in Tehran which makes medical isotopes.

But world powers want to take out the Islamic republic's LEU, suspecting it could be processed to high levels and used to make atomic weapons. Iran denies its nuclear programme has any military aims.

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