Top Russian officials hold nuke talks in Iran

Russian National Security Council chief Igor Ivanov and Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak were meeting with top Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, an AFP correspondent said.

They were also lined up for talks with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Gholamreza Aghazadeh.

No details from the talks were immediately available, but the mission follows up on a meeting of senior officials from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States -- the five permanent UN Security Council members -- as well as Germany that failed to break an impasse on how to deal with Iran although progress was reported.

A follow-up meeting at the foreign ministers' level is expected to take place in the coming week. US officials said it would probably take place in a European capital.

At their meeting in London last Wednesday, the major powers discussed a European proposal aimed at breaking Iran's determination to enrich uranium, a process, which can be extended from making reactor fuel to nuclear weapons.