Multiple Iranian negotiators complicate talks

The EU's top diplomat said yesterday Iran's new chief nuclear negotiator was upstaged by his predecessor at Rome talks, warning that "multiple players" from Iran could further complicate negotiations with the West.

Javier Solana met Iran's newly appointed chief negotiator Saeed Jalili for the first time on Tuesday. But the EU foreign policy chief said that former chief negotiator Ali Larijani, also in Rome, appeared to be leading the Iranian team.

"We have to let some time pass to see how these latest waves in Iran's power structure settle," Mr Solana said in an interview with Italian state broadcaster RAI's Italia News programme, which Reuters viewed ahead of its full release later this week.

"It will be very important because the negotiation is already a difficult negotiation. If you also must negotiate with various players at the same time, it will be more complicated still."

Mr Jalili replaced Mr Larijani after his resignation was announced in a move analysts said could present the West with a harder line in its dispute over Tehran's atomic ambitions.

Mr Solana noted that Mr Larijani was still on the Supreme National Security Council as a representative of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying: "In this capacity, he was in Rome talking to me."

"They were both at the meeting, Larijani and Jalili. Larijani led the meeting, he was the one that took on all of the weight of the meeting," he said. "So he will continue to play an important role, in my judgment, in Iran's power structure."

Mr Larijani took the lead for the Iranian team again at a joint news conference yesterday with Mr Jalili, Mr Solana and Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, after further discussions.

Prof. Prodi, whose country is one of Iran's main trading partners, said he had urged cooperation with the IAEA and "warmly invited Iran to comply with the requests from the United Nations to halt uranium enrichment procedures".

But Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday, just before the talks began, that he rejected calls to suspend uranium enrichment - the UN Security Council's key demand - and that Iran would not retreat "one iota" on its nuclear plans.

The Security Council has imposed two sets of limited sanctions because of Iran's failure to heed a demand to halt nuclear work the West believes is aimed at building atomic bombs.