“Our position is clear and we will not withdraw from our demands,” Hussein Mussavian told Khabar news network.

In the discussions with EU powers Britain, France and Germany slated for May 23 in Brussels, Iran plans to insist that it be allowed to resume at least parts of its uranium conversion programme, halted in November last year following pressure from the Europeans.

The EU and US expressed concerns that Iran could use the programme to make nuclear weapons.

Another delegation member said the uranium conversion programme in the Isfahan plant in central Iran is expected to top the agenda of the Brussels meeting.

“We have given the Europeans enough time to consider our proposals,” Cyrus Nasseri told Teheran daily Sharq while predicting little chance for a akthrough.

President Mohammad Khatami said last week that the talks with the Europeans had reached “a serious juncture” and he hoped that both sides would continue to talk.

Khatami’s probable successor after presidential elections scheduled for June 17, Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, called for patience and warned both sides against making any hasty decisions.

Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Hassan Rowhani, who will lead the Iranian delegation in Brussels, voiced his disappointment with the EU in general and over the nuclear dispute in particular.

“We have so far gained no tangible outcome from any (dialogue),” Rowhani said on state television.

While branding the Brussels meeting as the last chance to find a settlement in the ongoing nuclear dispute, Rowhani said that Iran was only willing to continue to the talks under the condition that the country be allowed to resume parts of its uranium conversion programme at the Isfahan plant.

The three EU countries have said that failure of the talks would catapult the issue to the United Nations Security Council where Iran could face further sanctions to those already imposed by the US.