Iran is set to meet six world powers in the Swiss city of Geneva to discuss its nuclear programme.

伊朗将要与六大世界强国在瑞士城市日内瓦商讨其核计划。

Iran says it is getting around UN sanctions by producing uranium domestically
They are the first talks in over a year, but analysts¹ say any breakthrough is unlikely.

On Sunday Iran announced that it had delivered its first domestically produced raw uranium to a plant that can make it ready for enrichment.

The US criticised the announcement but Tehran said as a result it would go to the talks with "strength and power".

On state television, nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi said the talks were for the benefit of the other countries, not Iran.

"We want to create a graceful² solution out of the political deadlock³（僵局） for those who have pressurised（压力太大） us," he said, according to Reuters news agency.

The US and its allies believe Iran may be trying to produce nuclear weapons.

Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful civilian⁴ purposes.

Circumventing⁵ sanctions

"The West had counted on the possibility of us being in trouble over raw material but today we had the first batch⁷ of yellowcake [raw uranium] from Gachin mine sent to Isfahan [conversion] facility," Mr Salehi said on Sunday.

Enriched uranium can be used for fuel in reactors⁸ or made into nuclear bombs.

Iran was believed to be running low on its stock of yellowcake, originally imported from South Africa in the 1970s.

Producing it domestically would enable Iran to circumvent⁶（包围，陷害） four rounds of increasingly harsh UN sanctions aimed at forcing it to comply with UN Security Council resolutions and freeze uranium enrichment.

White House National Security Council spokesman Mike Hammer said the announcement was not unexpected, as Iran had been trying to develop its own uranium programme for years.

"However... this calls into further question Iran's intentions and raises additional concerns at a time when Iran needs to address the concerns of the international community," Mr Hammer said.

In Geneva, Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili will meet EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton and senior officials from the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, France and Britain - and Germany.

The talks are scheduled to last for two days. But analysts say the best outcome that can be hoped for is simply the agreement of further meetings.

The Security Council has said that until Iran's peaceful intentions can be fully⁹ established, it should stop enrichment and other nuclear activities.

Iran says that as a signatory（签名国） of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, it has the right to enrich uranium for fuel for civil nuclear power.