MADRID, May 31: The EU and Iran began a fresh round of talks here on Thursday aimed at ending a tense standoff over Tehran's atomic programme, with the bloc urging greater flexibility from the Islamic republic.

It is the second meeting between Iran's top negotiator Ali Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in just over a month after a fruitless head-to-head in Turkey in late April.

Solana “is asking the Iranians to show flexibility during the meeting today,” his spokeswoman Cristina Gallach said before the start of the talks.

Earlier, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had also called on Iran “to change tactics” from its persistent defiance of UN Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment work, which Washington charges is part of a covert nuclear weapons programme.

“The international community is united on what Iran should do and that is to suspend; to demonstrate that it is in fact not seeking a nuclear weapon under cover of civil nuclear power,” Rice said in Vienna.

She repeated Washington's offer to join multiparty talks on trade, security and technological benefits for Iran if it halted the enrichment work.

The meeting is the first between Solana and Larijani since the expiration of a 60-day time limit set by the United Nations for Iran to stop enriching uranium, a process which can be used both to make nuclear fuel and, in highly purified form, the fissile core of an atomic bomb

“This is a very difficult issue, the questions are very sensitive, but a maximum effort must be made so that formal negotiations can start. For that to happen Iran must respect the Security Council resolutions,” said Gallach.

The meeting in Madrid has only a slim chance of achieving any breakthrough, with Tehran showing no sign of buckling under increasing international pressure.

“There is no possible path for the suspension of the enrichment of uranium,” Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said on Thursday.

“Iran will use all legal and judicial means to realise its legitimate rights and will not halt its nuclear activities,” he added.

Before flying to Madrid on Wednesday, Larijani said that suspending enrichment was “not a logical way” to resolve the nuclear issue.

CONDOLEEZZA RICE: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Iran on Thursday to change tactics and freeze uranium enrichment, but Tehran remained defiant ahead of talks on its nuclear programme with the European Union.