World powers should be prepared to make tough decisions about Iran's nuclear issue for a final agreement, senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Abbas Araqchi said on Monday.

The negotiator said he was optimistic about reaching a comprehensive agreement with the P5+1 group, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany, before July 20, the country's official IRNA news agency reported.

"Iran's negotiating team will do its best to defend Tehran's rights to peaceful use of nuclear energy," Araqchi said Monday in Geneva ahead of a two-day bilateral direct talks on Iran's controversial nuclear program with a U.S. delegation.

After decades of hostility because of the 1979 American hostage crisis, Iran and the United States made the first tentative steps towards rapprochement after the election of Hassan Rouhani as president last June.

Rouhani called his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama shortly after he took office, and that was followed by a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Last November, an interim deal struck between Tehran and Washington led the United States and and its partners to release 7 billion U.S. dollars from frozen funds in exchange for a slowdown in Iran's controversial uranium enrichment.

Iran said it would also hold similar direct talks with Russia and other members of six-power group before the coming Vienna nuclear meeting slated for June 16.

Tehran and the six world powers, including the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany, will discuss the details of a possible nuclear agreement in the upcoming talks in Vienna.

The Iranian government hopes to start drafting the final agreement soon, Araqchi was quoted as saying.

If Iran and the P5+1 group fail to reach an agreement before the July 20 deadline, the Geneva interim nuclear agreement could be extended for another six months, he said.

Both sides failed to giver birth to an agreement at the last round of Iranian nuclear talks in Vienna in May. Disagreements over issues such as Iran's nuclear fuel fabrication capability, transparency of its nuclear plan, as well as its ballistic missile program remain.

Western countries accuse Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, and demand that Iran significantly scale back its nuclear program, while allowing for more transparency.

However, Tehran insists that it has the right to develop peaceful nuclear programs under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, and that its nuclear activity is only for peaceful purposes.

The next round of Vienna talks is scheduled for June 16-20. Endi

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