DHAKA: Iran and six major powers have agreed to meet in Geneva next month for further talks on resolving the standoff with Tehran on its nuclear programme.

US and Iranian officials emerged upbeat on Thursday from a meeting on Iran’s nuclear programme, but both sides sounded a cautionary note, with the US saying there was more work to do and Iran insisting on quick sanctions relief.

Iran foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said after talks with US state secretary John Kerry following the meeting that the key world powers had agreed  to fast-track negotiations over the programme to within a year.

President Hassan Rohani said Iran was committed to negotiate on its nuclear programme in ‘good faith’ after the highest-level talks yet held with world powers.

‘We are fully prepared to seriously engage in the process toward a negotiated and mutually agreeable settlement and do so in good faith and with a business-like mind,’ Rohani told a forum in New York, reports Al Jazeera.

European Union’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said that the UN meeting with Iran officials on Thursday had been a very positive first step in resolving the dispute.

‘We had a discussion about how we would go forward with an ambitious timeframe to see whether we can make progress quickly,’ Ashton said after the meeting.

BDST: 0630 HRS, SEPT 27, 2013
RoR/GCP