No breakthrough in talks with Iran

Almaty (Kazakhstan) (AFP): Iran has yet to give a clear response to a proposal from world powers for ending the decade-long dispute over its nuclear programme, Western officials said on Friday after a first round of talks in Almaty.

"There has not yet been a clear and concrete response to the E3+3 Almaty I proposal" that the powers made at the last nuclear negotiations at the same venue in February, a Western official said in a statement to AFP also backed by a second source. "Their presentation was pretty much a repetition of what they put forward in Moscow (at talks last year).

There were some not fully explained general comments on our ideas," said the official. The world powers presented an offer to Iran that included some forms of sanctions relief in exchange for concession from Tehran on its nuclear programme, which the West believes is aimed at producing an atomic bomb.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, the powers' chief negotiator, said she expected "a considered, balanced and well-thought out response" from Iran when the two sides met against this morning.