Western leaders suspect Iran is working covertly to develop a nuclear weapon. Tehran says its atomic energy program is peaceful. The two days of talks in Istanbul are a follow-up to talks last month in Geneva, the first held in more than a year.
Impatient with what some analysts have called Iran´s zigzag diplomacy, the powers are looking for a clear sign from Tehran that it is ready to engage in a way that helps engender trust, even if there is no substantive progress.
Iran´s National Security Council issued a statement, quoted by Iranian television, saying the first session of talks on Friday was held in a "positive atmosphere." Iran´s nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili is the council´s secretary general.
One of Jalili´s aides in Istanbul drew a red line round its enrichment activities during the meeting. Uranium enriched to a low degree yields fuel for electricity or, if refined to a very high level, the fissile core of a nuclear bomb.
"We will not allow any talks linked to freezing or suspending Iran´s enrichment activities to be discussed at the meeting in Istanbul," Massoud Zohrevand said."Iran´s nuclear rights cannot be discussed."
European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton heads the delegations representing six big powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.
"No one is expecting any big breakthrough, but Iran needs to show that it is interested in engaging in a wider process," said one diplomat as the opening session began.
Iran´s nuclear standoff with the West has escalated in the past year, with the United Nations imposing new sanctions and Western states rejecting a revised proposal for Iran to swap some of its fuel abroad as too little, too late.
"It is very important that Iran takes those negotiations seriously...to discuss its nuclear program in detail," Britain´s Foreign Minister William Hague said during a news conference in New Zealand.
"These negotiations are a test of Iran´s willingness to enter into, and to keep to its international obligations under the NPT, and under successive resolutions of the UN Security Council," Hague said.
Iran has ignored Security Council resolutions demanding it suspend enrichment, with trade and other benefits offered in return, and grant unfettered access for UN nuclear inspectors.
The prospect of an Iranian atom bomb fans fears of a broader Middle East conflict should the United States or Israel opt to attack it, a mooted last-ditch option should diplomacy fail.
The first session of two hours Friday morning ended with the two sides looking for common ground. "The first round is over and talks will continue today and tomorrow to find neutral points," the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA) reported.
US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Thursday that the United States was willing to discuss an updated fuel swap, if it reflected the progress Tehran´s has made on uranium enrichment since the proposal was first hatched.
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