Major world powers have begun two days of talks with Iran over its controversial nuclear programme.
Diplomats meeting in Turkey are expected to revive a fuel-swap plan, where Iran gives up nuclear material in return for fuel for a research reactor.
US officials warned that a major breakthrough was unlikely.
Some Western nations suspect Iran aims to build nuclear weapons, and economic sanctions have been imposed. Tehran insists its programme is peaceful.
After the two-hour morning session in Istanbul, Iran’s National Security Council said in a statement that the talks had made a “positive start”.
One goal
EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton is heading a delegation from China, France, Germany, Russia, the UK and US, aiming to get Iran to be more open about its nuclear ambitions.
But Iran has repeatedly insisted that uranium enrichment will not be on the agenda, instead pushing such issues as global disarmament and Israel’s suspected nuclear arsenal.
In an effort to achieve this, there are reports that the negotiators are preparing to once again propose a fuel-swap deal.
Under such a deal Iran would give up an agreed amount of its low-enriched uranium. In return the world powers would provide fuel for a research reactor in Tehran.
However, it would be the third time in recent years that the idea of a uranium-for-fuel swap has been proposed.
A first version of this deal was agreed in October 2009, but collapsed shortly afterwards.
In May 2010, Brazil and Turkey brokered another version on their own with Iran – but the deal was rejected by the West.
Meanwhile, the UK’s Guardian newspaper has published a leaked US diplomatic cable from 2009 suggesting that American experts believed Tehran had the “technical ability” to make highly enriched uranium – which can be used in weapons.
The cable shows, however, that other international experts at the same meeting disagreed with the American view.
