Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi and Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, whose country holds the European Union's rotating presidency, each said they were hopeful of an Iran-EU agreement on Tehran's contested nuclear program.
The talks, which began in December and are continuing, are deadlocked as Iran refuses the EU's demand for it to permanently abandon uranium enrichment, a crucial part of the nuclear fuel cycle which the United States claims Tehran wants to use to make atomic weapons.
Iran had in November suspended enrichment as a confidence-building measure but says it will resume this activity if talks with the EU negotiators Britain, France and Germany fail to progress. Tehran expects economic and political rewards for its cooperation.
Kharazi said the key was for Iran to find a "mechanism" to reassure the EU it is not trying to make nuclear weapons and "we are hopeful it would lead to a very fruitful agreement," the Iranian foreign minister told a press conference.
In a separate press conference, also in Budapest, Juncker said the key was for "Iran to step away from direct access to nuclear weapons."
