Iran announced on Sunday that the stranded bilateral negotiations with the European Union (EU) over the country's nuclear program would be reopened on Dec. 21 in Vienna.

"The upcoming negotiations will be very important, and the future development (of the Iranian nuclear issue) will depend on them," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told reporters at his weekly news briefing.

Asefi said Iran expects to secure its legal rights on peaceful nuclear technology which are enshrined by related international conventions, adding that the claim on such legal rights should not be "a reason for concerns."

The bilateral nuclear negotiations, which started after Tehran suspended all activities related to uranium enrichment in November 2004, came to a pause in early August when Iran defiantly resumed uranium conversion activities, a preparatory stage for enrichment.

The two sides agreed to resume the talks after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decided on Nov. 24 to postpone the referral of Iran's case to the United Nations Security Council in order to give extra chance for the EU to save its efforts on a diplomatic solution to the issue.

The EU, which has been trying hard to dissuade Iran from its work to build nuclear fuel cycles, is expected to press Iran on an alleged Russian proposal, which allows Iran to conduct uranium conversion activities in exchange for the country's transfer of enrichment process to Russia, a measure keeping Tehran from obtaining nuclear technology crucial to making atom bombs.

However, Tehran resolutely rejected the proposal, insisting that its enrichment work must be performed in its own territory.

Meanwhile, Iran has also showed impatience on the suspension of the enrichment work and vowed to resume it in the near future.

But Gholamreza Aghazadeh, Vice-President and head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, promised on Saturday that Iran would not start the enrichment during the upcoming negotiations with the EU.

Source: Xinhua