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Tehran: Iran said on Friday that a nuclear standoff with the West could only be settled through negotiation while Russia called imposing punitive sanctions on Tehran for not ending sensitive atomic work a dead end.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran believes the only possible way to achieve fair and acceptable results for all parties is through negotiations and by respecting Iran's legitimate rights," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeated his defiant line on Friday, vowing never to give up Iran's nuclear ambitions.
European Union foreign ministers, meeting in Finland, want further dialogue with Iran rather than sanctions after Tehran defied Thursday's UN deadline to stop work that the West fears could be a prelude to making a nuclear bomb, officials said.
At a two-day informal meeting near Finland's border with Russia, the EU ministers were expected to seek fresh talks despite US pressure for a rapid move to impose sanctions.
As Thursday's UN deadline passed, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who will brief the ministers on Saturday, sought to keep up diplomatic efforts, and agreed to meet Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani early next week.
The pair will discuss Iran's 21-page response to an international package of political and economic incentives in exchange for Tehran suspending enrichment.
In a sign of the delicate state of affairs, Solana said on arriving for the talks: "I don't want to talk about anything before that meeting that is not of a positive nature."
According to a Western diplomat, the head-to-head talks will be followed on September 7 by a meeting in Berlin of permanent UN Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany
The European Union expressed continued concern.
"Unfortunately Iran has shown that ... for the moment at least it doesn't plan to cooperate on the nuclear issue and it's clear that on a matter of such importance the international community cannot stand idly by," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
"But at the same time we also said we want a diplomatic solution, so therefore I hope that the channels of communication can be still kept open," she told a news conference.
French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin echoed this position. "I regret very strongly the insufficient response of Iran," Villepin said at a news conference in Rome.
"We think it is possible to go forward with dialogue but it is important that the international community show Iran the necessity to change position."
Javier Solana told reporters he hoped to meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, in the coming days to seek a clear answer to major power proposals for broad cooperation if Tehran halts uranium enrichment.
An EU diplomat said they were tentatively due to meet in Berlin next Tuesday, one day before six big powers meet in the German capital to chart next steps in the standoff with Iran.
An EU official said Finland, which holds the 25-nation bloc's rotating presidency, did not want any substantial discussion of sanctions at their meeting.
Russia's foreign minister cast doubt on whether the UN Security Council can reach quick consensus on punitive measures.
"We take into account the experience of the past and we cannot ally ourselves with ultimatums, which all lead to a dead end," Interfax news agency quoted Sergei Lavrov as saying.
"Yes, there are countries whose policies raise doubts, and cause discontent, but we all live in the same world and we need to ... draw them into dialogue, and not isolation and sanctions."
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