"We're preparing the meeting" which would be held in a yet-to-be specified venue on Saturday morning, Gallach told AFP.

An Iranian official had said on Friday that Jalili and Solana would hold their next talks on ending the nuclear standoff on July 19, but Solana's office declined at the time to confirm the meeting.

World powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- last month presented Iran with a package aimed at ending the five-year-old nuclear crisis, notably offering Tehran technological incentives in exchange for suspending the sensitive process of uranium enrichment.

Iran has proposed its own package -- a more all-embracing attempt to solve the problems of the world including the nuclear standoff -- and has made much of the common ground between the two proposals.

The French foreign ministry has, however, confirmed that Iran does not say in its response that it is prepared to suspend uranium enrichment, which world powers say they fear could be used to make a nuclear weapon.

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