Iran talks hit snag

A third day of talks on Friday between Iran and six world powers in Vienna has failed to resolve differences on Tehran's nuclear program, with both sides speaking of slow progress.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi told Iran's IRNA news agency the negotiations were moving "very slowly and with difficulty."

The same sentiments were echoed by an unnamed senior US official, who told media the "discussions this week have been slow and difficult," speaking of "significant gaps" between the two sides and warning that "time is short."

Diplomats say the main thorn of contention at present is Iran's capacity to enrich uranium, with the Islamic Republic saying it wants to expand the number of centrifuges it has refining uranium so it can fuel a planned network of nuclear stations.

The United States and its allies fear this activity could lead to the production of bombs and want Tehran to significantly reduce the number of centrifuges - roughly 10,000 - it now operates.

Further difficulties have arisen over the length of constraints on enrichment and other nuclear activities that could theoretically lead to weapons construction.

Diplomats say Iran wants all restrictions lifted after only a few years, while the West is insisting on such limits lasting for decades.

Some headway

However, diplomats say a tentative agreement has been reached to re-engineer a partially built reactor so that it would produce less waste plutonium, a material that can also be used for the core of a nuclear weapon.

They also say Tehran is in principle ready to sign an agreement with the UN atomic agency that would allow the latter's inspectors to carry out fuller investigations of any atomic work.

The current talks in Vienna - involving Iran and Germany, the United States, France, Britain, China and Russia - aim at finalizing a deal that would permanently curb any Iranian nuclear work that could produce nuclear weapons, in return for the lifting of all UN and Western sanctions on Tehran's economy.

The deal is to replace the current interim agreement, concluded in November, under which Iran froze certain nuclear activities in return for some relief from sanctions. That deal expires on July 20.

The talks on the final deal are in their fourth round, having begun in mid-February.

tj/dr (Reuters, AP, AFP)