New round of Iran n-talks to be held next week

The talks between six world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme will resume in Switzerland's Montreux on March 5, a press release from the EU delegation to Geneva said on Friday.

The talks, to be chaired by EU Political Director Helga Schmid, will be preceded by a series of bilateral meetings between Iran and the P5+1 group, namely the US, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany, starting on Monday.

"The EU is making every effort to facilitate the negotiations, we cannot miss the opportunity of a good agreement," Xinhua cited EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini as saying.

The last round of Iran nuke talks was held February 21-23 in Geneva, which described by Chinese representative Wang Qun as "intensive, pragmatic and held in good atmosphere".

It has been over a year since Iran and the world powers agreed to come back to the negotiating table for the Iranian nuclear programme in 2013. Under an interim deal between Iran and the P5+1 inked in November, 2013, Iran said it would suspend critical nuclear activities in return for limited ease of sanctions, with all sides seeking a comprehensive deal.

After missing twice self-imposed deadlines, the negotiators agreed in November 2014 to extend the deadline for another seven months and aimed to reach a political framework deal by the end of March.