EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said that he will meet Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani this week in New York and that key progress had been made in talks. Solana, who has been negotiating for the six major powers over Iran's uranium enrichment, did not give a date for the meeting but he is scheduled to leave New York on Friday.
"This meeting will be important, no doubt," Solana told reporters before holding talks with Bolivia's President Evo Morales on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
It was not known if the Iranian negotiator was in New York but Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was due to arrive on Tuesday to give a speech to the General Assembly.
"We'll meet here but I don't know where or when, because the schedule of the general assembly is very complicated and difficult for everybody," Solana said.
The United States and its allies believe that Iran's nuclear programme hides a bid to build a nuclear weapon. Iran has insisted its nuclear activity is peaceful.
Solana and Larijani last met on September 9-11 in Vienna, after Iran failed to carry out a UN resolution which called on the country to halt uranium enrichment by August 31.
They had planned to meet last Thursday but the encounter was called off at the last minute with no official reason given.
Solana has recently expressed optimism about the possibility of a negotiated settlement with Iran, despite a US drive to impose sanctions.
Referring to UN resolution 1696 which set out the August 31 deadline for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment, Solana said: "It would be reasonable not to have a new one (resolution) as long as the door to dialogue is open."
He added: "It would be contradictory to do so while we continue to negotiate."
Solana said there had recently been almost daily contacts with the Iranian authorities. "It is during this time that we have made the most progress since the start of negotiations several years ago."
Solana is negotiating with the Iranians for the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- plus Germany to encourage Tehran to accept political and economic incentives in return for suspending its sensitive nuclear work.
Speaking in Caracas earlier Monday, the Iranian president said current negotiations should be finished before the United Nations becomes involved again.
Talks "are continuing, and I see no reason to speed them up," he told a press conference before flying to New York.
"Iran's nuclear program is very clear and very transparent," he said. "We have always said that we are willing to negotiate with any country."
If nuclear energy "is something good then everyone should have it, and if it is bad then nobody should have it," he said.
Ahmadinejad accused Western powers of wanting to control nuclear technology "and when another country needs it they sell it at a high price."
Countries that oppose Iran's peaceful uranium enrichment program "want to be an obstacle to the development of our people," he said.
