A senior Iranian official was quoted by a state-run television website on Thursday as suggesting any talks with world powers would not address the Islamic Republic's nuclear programme, Reuters reported. The comments by Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, were published a day after world powers pressed Iran to meet them for talks on the nuclear dispute before a U.N. General Assembly meeting this month. "It is wrong to think that possible talks with (the six world powers) would be about Iran's nuclear programme," Soltanieh was quoted as saying by the website of al-Alam, a state-run television station. "Iran's nuclear issue can only be examined at the International Atomic Energy Agency," he said. Al-Alam, an Arabic-language service, said Soltanieh made the comments in an interview late on Wednesday. Soltanieh said Tehran "was always ready to cooperate" with the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency to remove any doubts about its nuclear programme, which Tehran says is for peaceful power generation but which the West suspects is aimed at making bombs. Iran, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, has repeatedly rejected demands to halt or freeze expansion of uranium enrichment, which can have both civilian and military purposes. -- SPA
