Iran has begun formal talks with the International Atomic Energy Agency on tougher inspections of its nuclear sites, where Washington says atomic weapons could be made according to the official IRNA news agency.
"A three-member team from the agency opened talks with Iran on Saturday for Iran's signing the Additional Protocol," the agency quoted an official at Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation as saying.
It said the negotiations concerned the legal and technical aspects of the Additional Protocol to the nuclear Non- Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which will authorise snap probes of installations by international inspectors.
An IAEA spokeswoman in Vienna confirmed that the talks had begun and said the IAEA was expecting in the next few days to receive from the Iranians all the information that it had been promised about Iran's nuclear programme.
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said on Friday his country had no plans to build nuclear weapons and predicted that it would reach an agreement on its nuclear programme with the UN atomic watchdog.
Khatami said Iran did not rule out allowing inspections of its nuclear facilities without prior notice, but insisted on respect for his country's rights to have access to nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
Iranian officials told IAEA's chief Mohamed ElBaradei this week they still had misgivings about allowing tougher inspections and wanted to carry on negotiating the issue.
A senior Iranian official said on Thursday foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany would fly to Tehran next week to try to resolve a standoff before an October 31 UN deadline for Iran to disprove US-led claims it has a secret atomic weapons programme.
Failure to do so could see Iran's case referred to the UN Security Council in November.
Britain said on Friday it was discussing with France and Germany how to persuade Iran to meet international concern over its nuclear programme, but declined to confirm a joint visit by foreign ministers next week.
IAEA interest is focused on Iran's sophisticated uranium enrichment facilities which the United States says are at the heart of a clandestine attempt to build an atom bomb.
Iran says it needs to produce low-grade enriched uranium to use as fuel in nuclear power reactors. Highly enriched uranium can be used in atomic bombs and the IAEA has found traces of it in samples taken at two nuclear sites.