Iran president says all nuclear issues can be resolved

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday differences remain but all issues can be resolved in talks with the West to secure a long-sought deal on his country's disputed nuclear programme.

"I believe an agreement is possible. There is nothing that cannot be resolved and the other party must make its final decision for this," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

Rouhani's comments came a day after the latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group of world powers - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany - ended without a breakthrough.

The long-running talks are aimed at putting an Iranian nuclear bomb out of reach in exchange for easing sanctions on its economy. Iran has always insisted that its nuclear programme is for civilian use and that it has no plan to build a bomb.

"In this round of negotiations (in Lausanne, Switzerland) there were differences on some issues," Rouhani said, but noting that "common views emerged that can be the basis of a final agreement."

However he added: "Some points of disagreement persist."

The negotiations are to resume on Wednesday, leaving the two sides with just one week to meet a 31 March deadline for agreeing the outlines of a nuclear deal they hope will end a 12-year deadlock.

US Secretary of State John Kerry was to leave Switzerland on Saturday for talks in London with his British, French and German counterparts, the State Department said.

On Friday Kerry spoke by telephone with the foreign ministers of Russia and China, the other two powers involved in talks that officially resumed after the 2013 election of Rouhani.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who faced Kerry in talks all week, said on Saturday his team had been willing to work through the weekend, but the P5+1 needed time to "coordinate," hinting at a split between the world powers.

"In some cases, their diversity of interests, political views or personal issues or personalities became more sensitive than the actual negotiations," he wrote on his Facebook page, without naming any of the P5+1 countries.

The highly complex mooted agreement, due to be finalised by the end of June, is aimed at assuring the world Iran will not build nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian energy programme.

It would likely involve Iran reducing in scope its nuclear activities, allowing ultra-tight inspections, exporting atomic material and limiting development of new nuclear machinery.

In exchange, Iran - which denies wanting nuclear weapons - would get staggered relief from the mountain of painful sanctions that have strangled its oil exports and hammered its economy.

Kerry insists world powers united in Iran talks

However, Kerry said on Saturday that world powers were "united" in their approach to nuclear talks with Iran despite speculation of splits with France, and stressed that he would not rush into a bad deal.

"I emphasise: we are united in our goal, our approach, our resolve and our determination to ensure that Iran's programme is entirely peaceful," Kerry said in Switzerland before leaving for London.

Diplomats in Paris have expressed concern that Washington may be so keen on concluding a deal before the initial 31 March deadline that it might be ready to accept an overly pliable accord that Iran could work around.

On Friday, prior to a phone call with US counterpart Barack Obama, French President Francois Hollande insisted the "French position is easy to state: yes, Iran can have access to civilian nuclear capacities, but cannot obtain a nuclear arm." 

Kerry sought to reassure that Washington was not trying to pressure partners into an accord, saying "we have worked long and hard to achieve an agreement that resolves concerns on Iran's programme."

He said Iran still has to do more to prove that it would abide by a deal and that "important gaps remain."

"The stakes are high and the issues are complicated and all interrelated. Once again let me also be clear. We do not want just any deal. If we had, we should have announced something a long time ago and clearly since the joint plan of action was agreed we're not rushing," he said.

"This has been a two-and-a-half-year more process, but we recognise that fundamental decisions have to be made now, and they don't get any easier as time goes by. It's time to make hard decisions."

Yet there appears to be some difference of opinion on just how imminent that moment is. On Thursday, a European diplomat in Geneva confided the actual "deadline... is 30 June," rather than 31 March.

On Friday France's ambassador to the US, Gerard Araud, tweeted a similar warning that "making the end of March an absolute deadline is counterproductive and dangerous. Need all our time to finalise a complex agreement."

Araud later added that "pressure on ourselves to conclude at any price... is a bad tactic."