N-talks extension sign of political will: Iran

Tehran, July 23 (IANS) The extension of talks on Iran's nuclear programme is an indication of a "political will" on both sides toward reaching a final agreement, an Iranian official said Wednesday.

The next four months are an extension of the course which started in Geneva last November, Xinhua cited Iran's foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham as saying.

"The core issues around Iran's nuclear programme were discussed and negotiations became more complicated and more difficult," Afkham said.

The Iranian nuclear talks would be extended for four more months till Nov 24, European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday.

According to the interim Geneva nuclear agreement signed last November, Iran had to take steps to alleviate the concerns of the world powers over its nuclear programme in exchange for partial lifting of economic sanctions posed by the West.

There has been multiple rounds of negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group -- the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- but the leaders could not come to any conclusions and talks for a final deal were stalled as the two sides are still far apart on some core issues, such as Iran's future enrichment capacity.