Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki warned the European Union (EU) on Wednesday not to set preconditions to the ongoing nuclear negotiations, the official IRNA news agency reported.

"There could be no preconditions to Iran entering into nuclear talks with the European countries. Iran's stand has been well defined, and we do not want the talks just for the sake of holding talks," Mottaki was quoted as saying.

Negotiators of Iran and the EU kicked off a new round of one- day negotiations in Vienna, Austria, but diplomatic sources had expressed pessimism over the result, holding that it was hard for the two sides to reach agreement on Iran's sensitive uranium enrichment activities.

Mottaki said the nuclear talks were "quite serious" and should "follow a timetable", stressing that the topics were clear and the talks would proceed if the Europeans "were determined" to do so.

"Iran's position that its nuclear activities should not be distracted by preconceived allegations of intention and the Europeans should reaffirm Iran's right to obtain access to nuclear technology for peaceful ends are the two main points of the ongoing talks in Vienna," he stressed.

Mottaki also underlined the necessity of enrichment and completion of the nuclear fuel cycle in the Iranian territory, saying the nuclear technology "has become a local science" of Iran.

Iran's powerful Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani called on the EU on Tuesday to drop threats, referring to the EU leaders' warning on Saturday that time was running out for a diplomatic solution to the Iranian nuclear dispute.

The EU is trying 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.

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

The nuclear negotiations, opened in late 2004 after Tehran suspended all activities related to uranium enrichment, have been scuttled since Iran defiantly resumed uranium conversion activities, a precursor to enrichment, in early August.

The EU insists that Iran must halt all work for nuclear fuel cycle construction, the key of which is uranium enrichment, to provide objective guarantees that its nuclear research will not be used for military purposes.

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

Source: Xinhua