THE HAGUE - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi expressed hope Thursday that upcoming negotiations with the European Union on Iran's nuclear activities would be "successful".
"I hope tomorrow's meeting will be successful and come up with tangible results," Kharazi said after a meeting with his Dutch counterpart Ben Bot in The Hague.
Friday's talks are "crucial" to see if the Europeans are "serious", he added.
"Iran is not interested in delaying tactics that will take a long time without results," he said.
Kharazi has said that if there is no agreement or the talks collapse "it is our right to restore the program" of uranium enrichment which has currently been halted.
The European Union, represented by Germany, Britain and France, has been negotiating with Iran since last December to secure guarantees that Tehran would not use its nuclear program to build weapons.
Iran froze enrichment last November as a confidence-building measure to start the talks with the EU, which is offering trade, security and technology rewards if it makes the suspension permanent.
On Friday, Iran will meet again with Germany, Britain and France to discuss the nuclear program. Each new round of talks is generally preceded by Iranian warnings.
"We are doing our best and are ready to do our best to be quite transparent," Kharazi said.
But he stressed there "should be some time limit" to the talks with the EU.
"Nobody can deny our right to enrichment of uranium which is fuel for our power plants," he added.
Bot and Kharazi also talked about terrorism, human rights and the Middle East peace process in the talks they characterized as "constructive" and "frank".
Kharazi chided the European Union for taking "snapshots" of the human rights situation instead of looking at the "process developing".
04/28/2005 13:23 GMT