"The agenda, time and venue of the talks are not set yet, but both sides will first hold talks at the experts' level, then at the higher level," the spokesman for Iran's supreme national security council, Hossein Entezami, told the news agency.

He was responding to an offer by the EU-3 to resume direct talks with the Islamic republic on its nuclear programme. Washington accuses Iran of using it as a cover for nuclear weapons development, a charge vehemently rejected by Tehran.

"It does not make any difference whether the talks are official or unofficial, the important thing is to talk. However the talks should have a timeframe," he added.

An EU diplomatic source in Berlin said that Europe was ready to begin "exploratory talks on a possible entry into a negotiating phase," provided Iran refrained from "unilateral measures".

The source said the objective "remains obtaining objective guarantees" that Iran's nuclear programme "has exclusively peaceful ends".

On Sunday, a diplomat told AFP that the foreign ministers of the EU-3 had written to Iran's top national security official Ali Larijani with an offer of new direct talks.

According to the semi-official Mehr news agency on Sunday, the letter was handed to Javad Vaidi -- one of Iran's negotiating team -- in response to a letter from Larijani which called for a resumption of negotiations.

Entezami reaffirmed Tehran's insistence that it would enrich uranium on Iranian soil, saying it had not received any proposals from Russia on moving its enrichment work abroad.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said at a press conference during a visit to Azerbaijan on Monday that Tehran had a right to enrich uranium as part of its nuclear energy programme, adding "no force" could stop it from doing so.

"The enrichment of uranium is Iran's internal affair. It is the right of any state and no force can prevent the state from exercising this right," he said.

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