But Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, denied saying Tehran was ready to hold talks with the West on its atomic drive "without preconditions," the television reported.

"No comments or interview with TV networks has been made on nuclear talks or conditions," it quoted him as saying.

The television had earlier quoted Soltanieh as saying: "Negotiations without preconditions is Iran's main stance on the nuclear issue."

Instead, Soltanieh said he had referred to a letter he sent to the IAEA calling for the UN watchdog's meeting in September to approve an Iranian initiative to prohibit armed attacks on nuclear facilities across the globe.

"The only issue that was raised was to ban threats and attacks on the world's nuclear installations, because it is an international issue," he said, the television reported.

US President Barack Obama has given Iran until September to take up an offer by world powers of talks if it freezes uranium enrichment, or face harsher sanctions.

The West and Israel suspect Iran of secretly trying to build nuclear weapons, charges denied by OPEC's number two oil exporter which inists its atomic programme is for energy generation.

The Unted States and its staunchest ally Israel have not ruled out military action to stop its nuclear programme.

But six major powers involved in the talks -- the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- called in April for a resumption of the negotiations, which had stalled in September.

But prospects of a breakthrough have been clouded by the deep political turmoil in Iran over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June which have seen relations with the West take a turn for the worse.

Iran has said it is drafting a new package for the world powers in a bid to solve global issues, including the nuclear dossier.

Soltanieh's comments come a day before Ahmadinejad -- who set Iran on a collision course with the West during his first four-year term -- is due to submit his new cabinet to parliament for approval.

Iran's nuclear drive was also one of the key topics at talks between Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres, whose country is the only -- if undeclared -- nuclear armed state in the Middle East

Russia is helping Iran build its first nuclear power station.

In a dramatic shift from his predecessor George W. Bush's policies, Obama said after taking office in January that the United States was open to dialogue with its arch-foe if the Islamic republic's leaders "unclenched their fist."

However, Washington warned earlier this month that it may seek tough new sanctions on Iran if it misses the September deadline.

"We're not prepared to talk about any specific steps," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on August 3.

"But I have said repeatedly that, in the absence of some positive response from the Iranian government, the international community will consult about next steps, and certainly next steps can include certain sanctions."

The West and Israel suspect Iran of secretly trying to build nuclear weapons, charges denied by OPEC's number two oil exporter which inists its atomic programme is for energy generation.

However, Iran has defied repeated UN Security Council calls, and three sets of sanctions, to halt uranium enrichment, the process which makes nuclear fuel but also the core of an atomic bomb.

Neverthless, the US State Department's intelligence bureau has concluded that Iran will not be capable of producing weapons-grade uranium for weapons before 2013, national inteligence director Dennis Blair has told Congress.

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