A recent UN atomic agency report said that Iran has slowed production of enriched uranium
Iran insists its nuclear work is peaceful but Western countries suspect that Tehran wants atomic weapons
A 2007 satellite image of Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility.
A senior Iranian official was quoted by a state-run television website on Thursday as suggesting any talks with world powers would not address the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.
The comments by Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, were published a day after world powers pressed Iran to meet them for talks on the nuclear dispute before a U.N. General Assembly meeting this month.
"It is wrong to think that possible talks with (the six world powers) would be about Iran's nuclear program," Soltanieh was quoted as saying by the website of al-Alam, a state-run television station.
"Iran's nuclear issue can only be examined at the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said.
Soltanieh said Tehran "was always ready to cooperate" with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to remove any doubts about its nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful power generation but which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs.
Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, has repeatedly rejected demands to halt or freeze expansion of uranium enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes.
Citing Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, Soltanieh said "international cooperation, energy security and global disarmament" were among international and regional topics that could be raised in discussions with the world powers.
Jalili was quoted by state television on Tuesday as saying Iran was ready to talk to world powers and that Tehran had prepared "an updated nuclear proposal."
On Wednesday, Germany hosted a meeting of senior officials of Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain to discuss Iran's nuclear program.
Volker Stanzel, political director in the German Foreign Ministry, said after the meeting:
"With reference to Dr Jalili's statement this week that Iran is ready to resume talks, I expect Iran to respond to the offer of talks (made) in April by agreeing to meet before (the) UNGA (U.N. General Assembly)," Stanzel said.
A senior European official said the powers wanted such a meeting within about two weeks. There was disappointment that there had been no movement on the issue since April, he said.
The U.N. General Assembly meeting is on September 23-25.
After assuming office in January, Barack Obama offered Iran talks without precondition, and the six-nation group – made up of the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China – met in April and restated their offer of economic aid and technical assistance in return for Iran's suspension of uranium enrichment. The "E3 + 3" has also put forward a "freeze-for-freeze" proposal, under which the international community would stop extending sanctions if Iran stopped expanding its enrichment facility in Natanz, as a precursor for a more lasting settlement.
The Iranian response was delayed by the controversial presidential elections in June and their violent aftermath, but since then pressure on Iran has mounted. The Obama administration has made it clear that it expects signs of Iranian compromise by the UN general assembly, which begins on 23 September, and it would lead a push for further sanctions, including measures aimed at Iran's oil and gas sector.
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