Iran, EU to meet on nuclear deal

ANKARA - Iran and the European Union will hold a two-day meeting in Geneva on Thursday to discuss implementing a landmark nuclear deal between the Islamic state and major powers, Iranian state news agency IRNA reported on Tuesday.

"We will meet (EU negotiator) Mrs Helga Schmid in Geneva on Thursday and Friday," Iran's deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, told IRNA.

Schmid is a deputy of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who has overseen contacts between six world powers and Iran on the nuclear standoff.

Iran and the P5+1 - the United States, France, Britain, Germany, Russia and China - reached a deal on November 24 in Geneva aimed at curbing the country's most sensitive nuclear work in return for easing some economic sanctions.

Nuclear experts from Iran and the six powers have since held several rounds of talks to resolve various technical issues before the accord can be put into place.

The experts have to work out when the deal will be implemented. An Iranian negotiator earlier said the six powers and Iran had agreed to start implementing the deal on January 20.

Western countries fear that Iran's nuclear work has military goals and have imposed years of crippling sanctions on Iran. Tehran denies seeking to build an atomic bomb and says its nuclear work is aimed at power generation and medical research.