Iran said on Sunday it was ready to hold talks in Turkey with the six world powers on its controversial nuclear programme following a one-year break, turning to a neighbour seen as an ally.

The European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, representing the world powers in the negotiations, said she was awaiting official word from Tehran on a specific time and venue.

A response would follow after consultations with the major powers, her office said in Brussels.

Ashton proposed last month to hold the talks in Vienna -- headquarters of the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency -- starting from November 15.

"In the last two or three days, we informed our Turkish friends that we agree to hold negotiations in Turkey," Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in Tehran.

Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili informed Ashton in October that his country was prepared to resume nuclear talks after November 10 at a time and place agreed by both sides.

Turkey gave its approval in principle on Sunday to host the talks, the Turkish news agency Anatolia reported.

"Turkey has made lots of efforts since the start of the process for a diplomatic solution to be found," a diplomatic source said, quoted by Anatolia. "We are ready to do whatever is in our power."

On Sunday, an Iranian conservative newspaper, Vatan Emrouz, without quoting a source, reported that the negotiations would be held by the end of November in Turkey.

The nuclear talks between Iran and the six world powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia, Germany and the United States -- have been deadlocked since October 2009 when the two sides met in Geneva.

The world powers led by the United States suspect that Iran is masking a weapons drive under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran strongly denies.

Mottaki said the Islamic republic was "very optimistic" about the next round of talks.

"I hope we will reach an agreement soon over the date and the contents," he said. "We are very optimistic the discussions will start as soon as possible, as the overall approach of Iran is positive and constructive."

Iran has always insisted the talks be held on its package of proposals given to world powers before the October 2009 round of talks. That package talks of overall global nuclear disarmament.

But world powers insist the talks focus on Iran's nuclear programme.

The deadlock with world powers has already led to fresh UN and EU sanctions against Iran, which were followed by several other unilateral punitive measures by other nations, including the United States.

Western media reports say Washington plans to offer Iran "tough" proposals during the negotiations following Tehran's refusal to abandon the uranium enrichment programme, the most controversial part of its nuclear drive.

Enriched uranium can be used to power nuclear plants as well as to make the fissile core of an atom bomb.

French daily Le Monde reported on Thursday the United States was mulling to offer to transfer 2,000 kilogrammes of Tehran's low-enriched uranium (LEU) to Russia for the Islamic republic's Bushehr nuclear power plant, built by Moscow.

The US proposal also calls for the transfer of another 1,200 kilogrammes of Tehran's LEU to Russia and France, as offered in October 2009 for the Tehran Research Reactor, a facility making medical isotopes, according to Le Monde.

The report adds Washington plans to propose shifting the 30 kilogrammes of 20-percent enriched uranium that Tehran currently has produced and intends to convert into fuel for the Tehran reactor if world powers fail to deliver.

But Mottaki said last Wednesday that any swap of nuclear fuel must be based on an agreement it signed with Brazil and Turkey in May.

Brazil and Turkey brokered a modified agreement on a fuel exchange but the United States rejected it, arguing the deal failed to take into account additional uranium enriched since last year.

On Sunday, Mottaki also dismissed US Republican Senator Lindsey Graham's remark that Washington was facing a possible war with Iran. "Don't take the American senator's remark too seriously. He wanted to joke," he said.

The United States and its ally Israel have not ruled out a military strike to stop Iran's nuclear programme.

earlier related report
Iran dismisses report of new US nuclear fuel offer
Tehran (AFP) Nov 5, 2010 - Iran on Friday dismissed a media report that the United States was mulling a new offer to the Islamic republic to transfer Tehran's low-enriched uranium to Russia for higher processing.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said the report was a "media game" and no new "proposal has been forwarded to us."

Le Monde newspaper reported Washington was planning to offer to transfer 2,000 kilogrammes (4,400 pounds) of low-enriched uranium (LEU) for further enrichment in Russia, rather than an October 2009 proposal to shift 1,200 kilogrammes of LEU out of Iran.

The report said the new proposal being considered by President Barack Obama's administration would require Tehran to relinquish 30 kilogrammes of 20-percent enriched uranium it has refined since February.

Le Monde's report appears to be similar to one published in The New York Times last month which also said the Obama administration was preparing a new, more onerous offer for Iran on a nuclear fuel swap.

But Mottaki rejected the latest report.

"There is no logic in it," the foreign minister told Iran's state news agency IRNA. He said any fuel swap would depend on Tehran's needs as defined in a deal brokered by Brazil and Turkey in May.

The May deal, known as the Tehran Declaration, calls for 1,200 kilogrammes of Iran's LEU to be transferred to Turkey in return for 20-percent enriched uranium to be delivered from Russia and France at a later date.

"The Tehran Declaration explained the framework for the fuel swap," Mottaki said.

"If they do not wish to exchange fuel, we do not want this swap either because the Islamic Republic of Iran is taking its own measures" to produce the higher grade fuel, he said.

Talks between Iran and the United States, Russia and France over a fuel transfer have been deadlocked since October 2009, just as the overall nuclear negotiations between the six world powers and Tehran have hit a stalemate.

The world powers suspect Iran is masking a weapons drive under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge strongly denied by Iran.

But Iran and the major powers are expected to meet later this month to hold talks on Tehran's overall nuclear drive at which the issue of a fuel swap is also expected to be discussed.