However, EU and Iranian officials maintained that the two sides remain far apart, with Iran insisting on its right to make nuclear fuel and the West fearful that this could be used to manufacture atom bombs.

"The impasse over the nuclear file has been broken" and "from now on we sense a clear perspective for arriving at a compromise," said Hossein Entezami, spokesman for the Supreme National Security Council which is in charge of Iran's nuclear projects.

"The very fact that the dangerous process, which began with the resolution of September 24th, has stopped constitutes a diplomatic victory," Entezami said in comments published Thursday by the moderate daily newspaper Shargh.

The International Atomic Energy Agency had on September 24 adopted a resolution leaving the door open to sending Iran before the UN Security Council over its refusal to keep up a freeze on uranium conversion activities, which it resumed in August.

Also in August, European negotiators from Britain, France and Germany -- the EU-3 -- decided to break off negotiations with Iran, but a fresh round of talks resumed Wednesday with the parties agreeing to continue discussions next month in Vienna.

Earlier negotiations had failed over Iran's refusal to accept European offers of trade and economic incentives in exchange for a halt to enrichment activities.

As the fresh talks opened, Tehran reiterated what it described as its right to uranium enrichment, which it had suspended as a goodwill gesture in October 2003, under the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"The message of the Iranian delegation is to insist on the need for a precise calendar for resuming enrichment inside Iran," Iranian negotiator Mohammad Mehdi Akundzadeh told the official state news agency IRNA.

Iran's Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki also apparently rejected a Russian proposal that Iran to do some fuel work at home while enriching uranium only on Russian territory to keep this strategic activity out of Iran.

"It is normal that when we speak of enrichment for the fabrication of nuclear fuel that this means enrichment activities and the nuclear fuel cycle on our own territory," the foreign minister said Wednesday.

If talks fail, the EU, backed by the United States, has said it will take Iran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. Iran has threatened to retaliate against such a move.

Western members of the UN nuclear watchdog held off from demanding that Iran be sent before the Security Council in November, in order to leave negotiators another chance.

Entezami, in his remarks published Thursday, cited another example of what he described as evidence that Iran's stance had shown results.

"On the eve of the November meeting, some politicians advised us to stop uranium conversion at Isfahan (nuclear facility) to avoid a harsh reaction from the international community," Entezami said.

"But our principled position gave results and the Europeans agreed to return to the negotiating table without any preconditions. This constitutes a diplomatic success."

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