The visiting Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in Ankara Wednesday that preliminary talks between Tehran and the European Union (EU) over Iran's nuclear program would start in two weeks.

Speaking at a joint news conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, Mottaki said that the preliminary talks would set the timetable for future ministerial negotiations. But he did not say where the talks would take place.

The EU trio of Germany, France and Britain had been negotiating with Iran to persuade it to scrap uranium enrichment, but the talks broke off in August after Iran ended a freeze on uranium conversion, precursor to enriching uranium, which can be used to either fuel nuclear reactors or make atom bombs.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) board of governors decided last week to put off a referral of Iran's nuclear case to the UN Security Council after the EU and the US agreed to give Iran more time to consider a compromise proposal to let Russia enrich uranium on Iran's behalf.

Iran has said it will never give up its legitimate right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes.

The United States accused Iran of seeking nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, a charge rejected by Tehran as politically motivated.

(Xinhua News Agency December 1, 2005)