World powers and Iran are due to meet in Geneva later on Thursday for a further round of discussions. 

 

Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the talks would be "highly laboured" but the aim was to "cross over the wall of distrust" created by Western policies.

 

The West suspects Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons. 

 

Tehran says its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. 

 

 

In comments broadcast on Iranian TV on Thursday, Mr Zarif repeated Iran's long-standing assertion（断言，声明） that to "refrain from seeking nuclear weapons is a policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran".

 

The two-day meetings in Geneva come after the two sides described last month's discussions on the issue as "substantive¹ and forward-looking".

 

International negotiators said they were considering an Iranian proposal, although no details have been released.

 

The latest round of talks bring together Iranian officials and representatives of the "P5+1" - the permanent members of the UN Security Council (Britain, China, France, Russia and the US) plus Germany - also known as the E3+3.

 

Ahead of the meetings, a senior US administration official told reporters that Washington wanted Tehran to agree on a "first step" to stop advancing its programme further.

 

The official, who spoke² on the condition of anonymity³, said the US was hoping for "an initial understanding that stops Iran's nuclear programme from moving forward and rolls it back for the first time in decades".

 

Last month, the EU's top foreign policy official, Catherine Ashton, said the the P5+1 and Iran had "their most detailed⁴ talks ever".

 

Last month's talks were the first since Hassan Rouhani - seen as a relative moderate - became Iran's president in August.

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