The announcement that long-awaited talks will take place from October 1 was greeted as a welcome first step by United States officials but a White House spokesman made clear there will be no holds barred in the discussions.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Javier Solana meanwhile said the talks would "very likely" take place in Turkey, a country seen as having good relations with both the West and the government in Tehran.

Tehran has consistenly denied its uranium enrichment activities are part of an attempt to manufacture weapons and are merely for energy needs. It has said it would be prepared to field questions about the atomic programme but will not trade away its rights to nuclear energy.

"I don't know what's on their agenda, but I know what's on our agenda and I know what's on the agenda for countries around the world that are concerned about Iran's illicit nuclear weapons program," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters on Monday.

"It will be part of that discussion, and if Iran is unwilling to discuss their illicit nuclear weapons programme, I think all that does is strengthen the hand of the international community in underscoring the obligations, again, that the Iranians are failing to live up to.

"So I think this will be an interesting moment and we'll see if it's something that -- if it's something they don't want to talk about, I think that will speak volumes around the world."

The agreement for the talks to begin at the start of next month was sealed on Monday in a phone call between Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, days after Tehran submitted new proposals.

Six countries -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- will take part in the talks with the Iranian delegation.

Tehran is already under three sets of UN sanctions and European diplomats said last week that the EU could consider introducing more unilateral sanctions if the UN Security Council cannot agree to do so.

Speaking Tuesday ahead of a meeting of European Union foreign ministers, Solana said dialogue was still regarded as the best forward but also stressed a "double-track approach" -- the carrot and stick of trade, aid and sanctions.

"At this point in time, we are going to try to enter into a negotiation," said Solana.

The talks will involve the political directors of the foreign ministries of the six powers, including the State Department's William Burns.

The seven-way meeting is the first since July last year, when then-president George W. Bush sent Burns to an inconclusive one-off meeting with Iran in Geneva.

Solana said he expected the US involvement to be deeper this time.

"The Americans will be present in a formalised manner -- this is new and I think that has to be evaluated positively by the Iranians," he told reporters.

While Bush's successor Barack Obama has initiated a more open policy towards Tehran, Washington had expressed disappointment with the new package of proposals, saying it did not address its greatest concern on nuclear weapons.

The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, Ali Akbar Salehi, said Monday that Tehran was ready to field questions about its atomic programme, but will not horse trade on its fundamental rights to nuclear energy.

"As our president has said, there is no room to bargain on (our) sovereign right (to nuclear energy technology). But once it comes to discussion, everyone is free to pose any question they wish," he told reporters in Vienna.

related report
Iran talks must answer nuclear concerns: Clinton
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Tuesday that Iran must answer "head on" concerns about its nuclear program at talks in two weeks even though Tehran has so far ignored such appeals.

Clinton told reporters here that the point of an October 1 meeting between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany is to test Tehran's readiness to discuss such concerns.

"We have made clear to the Iranians that any talks we participate in must address the nuclear issue head on. It cannot be ignored," the chief US diplomat said during a press conference with Uruguayan President Tabare Vazquez.

"Iran says it has a number of issues it wishes to discuss with us but what we are concerned about is discussing with them the questions surrounding their nuclear program and ambitions," she added.

Clinton conceded that it is difficult to predict what will emerge from the talks when she was asked how Washington could agree to them without any Iranian commitment to discuss its own nuclear program.

"The point is to meet and explain to the Iranians face to face the choices Iran has and to see whether Iran is prepared to engage with us around its nuclear program," Clinton said.

She said that the meeting marks a "fulfillment" of President Barack Obama's pledge to engage with Iran despite three decades of hostility between Washington and Tehran.

Washington will be taking its dual track, or carrot-and-stick, approach to the meeting, Clinton added.

"We are on the one hand working to see whether anything positive can come from this meeting on October 1," she said.

"But we are also working with the international community on consequences that would flow if Iran fails to fulfill their international obligations on their nuclear program," the secretary added.

The UN Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions against Iran over its refusal to freeze its uranium enrichment activities. And Washington has threatened to push for new sanctions if engagement with Iran fails.

The six powers -- which represent the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany -- had called for urgent talks with Iran after it handed over the proposals last week.

Washington expressed disappointment with the package, saying it was "not really responsive to our greatest concern," which is the nuclear issue, but Moscow said it offered "something to dig into."

According to a copy of the proposals obtained and published by US non-profit investigative journalism group, Pro Publica, Iran said it was prepared to hold "comprehensive, all-encompassing and constructive negotiations."

The United States, the European Union and Israel fear that Iran is secretly developing nuclear weapons under the guise of its civilian nuclear power program, but Tehran denies the charges and says the program is peaceful.

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