UNITED NATIONS Sept 16: Iran’s nuclear plans and the situation in neighbouring Iraq topped the agenda during talks between Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday evening. In a statement issued after the meeting, a UN spokesman said Mr Annan later invited the foreign ministers of France, Germany and the United Kingdom – often referred to as the E3 – and the European Union’s High Representative Javier Solana to join them for further discussions on the nuclear issue.

Describing the talks as cordial, the spokesman said the parties agreed on the need to keep searching for a mutually acceptable solution to the nuclear issue. Mr Ahmadinejad also reiterated his commitment to outline new proposals during his scheduled speech to the General Assembly on Saturday.

Iran’s nuclear programme has been a matter of concern since 2003 when the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) determined that the country had for almost two decades concealed its nuclear activities in breach of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

Comments by US President George W Bush in his UN speech underlining Iran’s right to a nuclear energy programme have given fresh impetus to Tehran’s talks with the European Union, a senior Iranian officials were quoted as saying.

“Bush’s speech has provided the Europeans with the space they needed to continue talks with Iran,” the Iranian spokesman said. “Bush’s speech was an obvious retreat from his past stances, thus paving a way for further negotiations.”

Discussions between Tehran and the EU trio of Britain, Germany and France had broken down last month after Iran rejected an EU proposal to resolve the nuclear issue and broke the UN’s seals at a uranium conversion plant.

The United States and its allies wanted take the case against Iran to the UN Security Council through the IAEA’s board of governors which is scheduled to meet on Monday. But officials here acknowledged that they might lack international support for such a move.

China and Russia have rejected the move to brining the issue to the UN Security Council.