VIENNA, Nov 5 (AFP) - Last-chance Iran-EU nuclear talks in Paris on getting Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment in order to avoid UN sanctions were deadlocked Friday evening and may continue Saturday, a Western diplomat close to the negotiations told AFP.
"They are unable even after many hours of talks to reach any kind of agreed language on the duration of the suspension, the timing or scope of incentives (for Iran)," said the diplomat, speaking by telephone from a Western capital.
The United States accuses Iran of secretly trying to develop nuclear weapons under cover of its civilian atomic energy program and wants the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency to take Iran before the UN Security Council when the IAEA meets in Vienna on November 25.
Iran denies it has a secret weapons program.
The diplomat said "the talks are likely to go into tomorrow (Saturday)."
But a senior Iranian official had said in Tehran earlier Friday that progress had been made in the Paris talks.
"We have made progress and if the discussions continue like this, there is a possibility that we will reach a solution that satisfies both parties," senior negotiator Hossen Mousavian told state television.
He said that agreement had been reached on certain points, without specifying which.
Representatives from Britain, France, Germany and the European Union were meeting in Paris in the latest round of talks aimed at convincing Iran to suspend all uranium enrichment activities in order to avert the threat of UN sanctions.
11/05/2004 22:49 GMT - AFP