Iran said today talks on what it says are civilian nuclear plans would begin within days with EU states, but Germany said Tehran would first have to try and dispel fears it really wanted to build the bomb.
"Preliminary negotiations will start within two weeks," Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on a visit to Turkey. "The officials will negotiate the agenda and afterwards negotiations will start on a ministerial level."
Talks between Iran and Britain, France and Germany - the so-called EU3 - broke down in August after Tehran resumed uranium processing, a precursor to uranium enrichment.
Germany's new foreign minister said talks had been agreed in principle but would only resume if Tehran signalled it truly wanted to lay to rest fears about its intentions.
"A few days ago the EU3 accepted the request of Iran to resume negotiations. But the starting pistol for the resumption of talks has not been shot yet," Frank-Walter Steinmeier told parliament in Berlin.
He said the resumption of talks was "conditional on Iran sending signals that it will ... accept a solution that allows it to get peaceful nuclear energy but rules out the possibility that Iran will have a closed fuel cycle." Barring a "closed fuel cycle" means Iran will not be able to enrich uranium, a technology that would let it make fuel for power plants or for atomic weapons.
Iran says enrichment is a sovereign right and European diplomats expressed little hope it would change its stance soon.