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Ankara: Iran's top nuclear negotiator said yesterday that talks with a senior EU official had brought them closer to "a united view" of how to break a deadlock over Tehran's defiance of a UN Security Council demand to freeze uranium enrichment.
The upbeat comments by Ali Larijani boosted hopes that he and Javier Solana, the European Union's top foreign policy official, had chipped away at differences over enrichment - a potential pathway to nuclear arms - in two straight days of talks.
"In some areas we are approaching a united view," Larijani told reporters after a breakfast meeting with Solana and Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul. "We are aiming to reach out for a common paradigm."
Solana spoke of a "good meeting", adding: "We cannot make miracles but we tried to move ... the [nuclear] dossier forward."
"The fact that we are together again is itself a very important development," he said. The two men's last meeting, in September, collapsed over the enrichment issue.
Neither man revealed details of their talks. But a government official based in a European capital who was briefed on the outcome of the meeting said a new definition of an enrichment freeze acceptable to both sides was "the key issue".
Solana said "specific discussions" did not revolve around a new definition of enrichment but said progress was made "in general terms".
The deal
There was also mention of a "double time out" - a freeze of such activities in exchange for a commitment not to impose new UN sanctions, said the official who demanded anonymity in exchange for discussing the confidential information with the Associated Press.
The "double time out" concept is supported by International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohammad Al Baradei and is part of a confidential document shared on Wednesday with AP.
The one-page document, based on a Swiss initiative, proposes that "Iran will not develop any further its enrichment activities" while the six powers negotiating with Iran "will not table any additional UN resolutions and sanctions".
Diplomats said the document is opposed by the United States, Britain and France but that parts of it could nonetheless serve as the basis of a later agreement that could lead to formal negotiations.
Solana was meeting with Larijani on behalf of the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany, the countries at the forefront of international efforts to pressure Iran to make nuclear concessions.
Government officials outside Turkey had told AP ahead of the meeting that the six powers may ultimately be willing to allow Iran to keep some of its uranium enrichment programme intact.
The Ankara meetings are only preliminary discussions meant to establish if there is enough common ground for further talks between the two men that could lead to the resumption of formal nuclear negotiations between the six powers and Iran.
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