Iran said on Friday that the upcoming nuclear negotiations with the European Union (EU) would be focused on Iran's uranium enrichment in its own territory, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

"The topic of the negotiations will be the issue of uraniumen richment on Iran's soil, and other irrelevant issues are out of the question," Hossein Entezami, spokesman of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was quoted as saying.

Entezami said that Iran would start the talks "without accepting any preconditions", but expressed patience on the process of the negotiations, pointing out that the two sides "will have enough time to talk about that (uranium enrichment) in the future".

The spokesman further termed as "the most important achievement" Iran's escape from being referred to the UN Security Council at the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) meeting on Nov. 24.

"The most important achievement of Iran's nuclear diplomacy in recent months was that the impasse over Iran's nuclear dossier has been resolved, and the situation is improving in the country's favor," Entezami said.

"Iran's confidence building and active diplomacy at the November meeting of the IAEA were fruitful, and gradually, Iran's views and outlook are being accepted at the agency," he added.

Iran and the EU have been scheduled to resume their negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program on Dec. 21 in Vienna, Austria.

The bilateral talks, opened after Tehran downrightly suspended activities related to uranium enrichment in November 2004, have been stranded since Iran resumed uranium conversion activities in early August, a move viewed by the EU as a breach of the agreement reached previously.

During the upcoming talks, the EU 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 has resolutely rejected the proposal, insisting that its enrichment work must be performed in its own territory.

The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, a charge rejected by Tehran as politically motivated.

Source: Xinhua