TEHRAN/BARCELONA, Nov 27: Britain, France and Germany agreed on Sunday to hold talks with Iran on resuming negotiations on the Tehran’s nuclear programme, which broke down in August, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.

“A letter has been conveyed to Iran this afternoon ... from the three countries and myself. We offered Iran to have conversations, dialogue to see if we have enough common basis to start negotiations,” Solana told reporters at a Euro-Mediterranean summit in Barcelona.

An EU official said the letter omitted the previous European condition that negotiations on long-term cooperation could only restart if Iran resumed a full suspension of activities related to uranium enrichment, which could help it produce weapons.

Solana said the letter set no date but Iran’s official Irna news agency said ambassadors of the so-called EU3 countries accepted a resumption of the talks in December, quoting a statement issued by Iran’s Supreme National Security Council.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, wrote to the EU3 this month, calling for the resumption of talks, which collapsed when Tehran reactivated a plant that converts uranium ore into a gas, a precursor to making enriched nuclear fuel.—Reuters/AFP