By DPA
Tehran : An initial round of talks on Iran's nuclear programme ended in Tehran Wednesday between Iranian officials and a delegation from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headed by IAEA deputy director Olli Heinonen.
No results have been disclosed about the three-hour meeting, state news agency IRNA reported, adding that the second round of talks would be held Thursday. Initial results are expected to be announced Thursday afternoon.
The Iranian delegation was headed by Javad Vaeidi and Mohammad Saeidi, deputies of the National Security Council and Iranian Atomic Energy Organization respectively, as well as Iran's IAEA envoy Ali-Asqar Soltanieh.
There were no reports from a separate meeting between Heinonen and Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.
Heinonen arrived in Tehran early Wednesday accompanied by three other IAEA officials in charge of safeguard operations, legal issues and external policy coordination.
Heinonen and his team were reportedly not scheduled to visit Iran's nuclear sites in the centre of the country but were only to hold talks in Tehran.
Larijani and IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei agreed last month to draw up a plan of action under which Iran would clarify all remaining technical ambiguities of its nuclear programme to the IAEA, and later settle the political aspects of the dispute with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Just before the Iran-IAEA talks, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that although Iran would be ready to remove all ambiguities within talks about its nuclear programme, the country would not be ready to suspend its uranium enrichment process.
"We are ready to remove ambiguities within talks but there should be no expectations of making concessions over our nuclear rights," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. "We will not retreat one step from these rights."
He further referred to reports of Iran having slowed down its enrichment activities, saying that the process might be one day accelerated and another day slowed down, "but it does not mean that we would stop the process".