The official said it was up to chief US negotiator William Burns to decide whether the process could be helped by talking to the Iranian side directly, the official said late Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The talks between the permanent five members of the UN Security Council and Germany (P5+1) and Iran have taken on critical importance following the exposure last week of a secret Iranian nuclear plant near the holy city of Qom.

Breaks in Thursday's talks will allow the various delegations to caucus," the official said.

"It will also provide for an opportunity, if it's useful in the talks, for there to be bilateral conversations between members of the P5+1 group and the Iranian group in Geneva."

Burns, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, will be authorized to decide on a one-on-one encounter if additional points need to be stressed with the Iranians or messages need to be conveyed, the official said.

Though unusual, one-one-one conversations between sworn foes Iran and the United States are not unique, another official said, mentioning contacts on Iraq and Afghanistan between Tehran and the previous Bush administration.

earlier related report
Iran pressed to clear up nuclear aims at talks
The United States pressed Iran to prove it has peaceful nuclear ambitions ahead of crunch talks with six world powers in Geneva on Thursday aimed at breaking a deadlock.

Iran meets with the UN Security Council's five permanent members plus Germany a week after the disclosure of a second Iranian uranium enrichment plant, which heightened concerns about the true nature of the programme.

Tehran is already under three sets of United Nations sanctions over its repeated refusal to freeze its uranium enrichment activities, which Western powers fear are aimed at building a nuclear bomb. Iran denies the charge.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Iran on Wednesday that it risks "greater isolation and international pressure" if it fails to give UN inspectors access to nuclear facilities and freeze sensitive activities.

Western powers, as well as China and Russia, have urged Iran to give the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's nuclear watchdog, access to the previously secret nuclear site near the holy city of Qom.

The revelation of the new site has given the six powers a "collective sense of urgency and impatience in this issue," a senior US official, who requested anonymity, told reporters in Geneva.

Washington is prepared to enter one-on-one dialogue with Iran at the talks, another senior US official said also on condition of anonymity.

The official said in the US capital that it was up to chief US negotiator William Burns to decide whether the process could be helped by talking to the Iranian side directly.

"It will also provide for an opportunity, if it's useful in the talks, for there to be bilateral conversations between members of the P5+1 group and the Iranian group in Geneva," the official added.

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Iran was "on the wrong side of the law" by not declaring its new enrichment plant to his agency before last week.

"Iran was supposed to inform us on the day it was decided to construct the facility. They have not done that," ElBaradei told Indian TV channel CNN-IBN.

Iran's atomic chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, said this week that his country would soon give a timetable to inspect the second site.

The talks between Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili and senior officials from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany will be the first since US President Barack Obama took office in January.

The "starting point" for the negotiations will be the six powers' offer to suspend sanctions against Iran in exchange for Tehran to freeze its nuclear enrichment, said the US official in Geneva.

"We want them to come prepared to focus on the nuclear issue and demonstrate that they are willing to take steps to restore the confidence that's been lost in their peaceful intentions," another US official said.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signalled for the first time Wednesday a willingness to discuss specifics about its enrichment operations, saying Tehran could allow a third party to enrich uranium for a reactor.

"One of the subjects on the agenda of this negotiation is how we can get fuel for our Tehran reactor," he was quoted by ISNA news agency as saying.

But the hardline leader remained defiant, insisting that Iran would not be "harmed" whatever the outcome of the talks.

His top negotiator, Jalili, said he was coming to Geneva with a "positive approach".

earlier related report
US grants Iranian FM rare Washington visit
The United States granted Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki permission to make a rare stop in Washington on Wednesday, on the eve of high-stakes nuclear talks in Geneva.

But there were no plans for Mottaki to meet US government officials during his trip to visit the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani embassy here, State Department representatives said. "I wouldn't read too much into this. It was a straightforward request, and we granted it," Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs PJ Crowley told reporters.

US analysts said it was the first such visit by an Iranian chief diplomat since former foreign minister Kamal Kharazi traveled outside New York about a decade ago. The visit came as senior diplomats from the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France plus Germany prepare to meet with their Iranian counterpart on Thursday to discuss their concerns about Tehran's nuclear program.

"We're far more interested in having Iran come tomorrow to Geneva and we hope that they will be the ones who are offering gestures that they are ready to address the concerns that the international community has," said Crowley.

A senior US official, meanwhile, later said the White House was prepared to enter into a direct dialogue with the Iranians during the talks in Geneva if chief US negotiator William Burns thought the process could be helped by it. The meeting in Geneva will be the first involving both US and Iranian envoys in more than a year and fulfills a promise by President Barack Obama's administration to engage diplomatically with Iran.

The new administration is threatening to impose another round of sanctions against Iran if it continues to defy international demands to halt uranium enrichment -- while offering economic and other incentives for cooperation. National Iranian-American Council president Trita Parsi told AFP it "would be surprising" if US officials did not meet Mottaki. The visit, he said, was a "significant gesture" by Washington to improve the negotiating climate.

But State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said "no one from the State Department met with him, nor anybody from the White House or the NSC" (National Security Council). Iran expert Karim Sadjapour backed the claim that the diplomat did not meet US officials, calling Mottaki "a mid-ranking apparatchik." Despite the appearance of rising tensions, including those flowing from Iran's long-range missile tests, "something much more promising and positive is happening behind the scenes," Parsi said.

He pointed to Iran granting Switzerland, which represents US interests in Tehran in the absence of ties, access to three US hikers on Tuesday, almost two months after they were detained for straying across the border from Iraq. Other analysts disagreed with Parsi's take. The Obama administration sent the "wrong signal at the wrong time" to Iranians by allowing Mottaki to visit Washington, said Sadjapour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Those protesting Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's contested re-election in June will see the Obama administration as more concerned about the nuclear issue than the "well-being" of Iranians, he added.

Suzanne Maloney, a senior fellow at the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said she was still "dubious about the prospects" for the talks in Geneva. The visit, however, could show Tehran that Washington is serious about engagement in return for more transparency on the controversial nuclear program, she said.

"It's a good sign that the administration is looking for opportunities to send positive signals as well as enhance the appearance of American leverage in the run-up to the talks," added Maloney, a former State Department official. Mottaki's trip, she conjectured, might lead to a future US visit to Iran to "scope possibilities for a future" US government presence there.

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