(Xinhua) -- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said on Sunday that Iran was ready to hold talks with five UN Security Council members plus Germany on its nuclear issue with no preconditions. Hosseini made the remarks when answering a question at his weekly press conference on whether an upcoming security meeting in Baghdad would open doors to negotiations, the official IRNA news agency reported. "The venue is not the question that we lay emphasis on Baghdad meeting," he said, adding that "we are ready to negotiate with ...the permanent members of the UN Security Council including China, Russia, France, Britain, the U.S. plus Germany without any preconditions." Iraq will host neighboring countries and other world powers on March 10 for a meeting meant to enlist support for Iraqi government efforts at stabilizing the country. In response to a question on whether he had any recommendations to the Monday meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors, the spokesman said, "The solution to this case is negotiations and anything else will make the case more complicated."
A senior U.S. official said in Washington on Saturday that major powers failed to settle all their differences over a second UN sanctions resolution against Iran for its nuclear activities. "There is still some work to be done on a few outstanding issues, but all parties remain committed to a second resolution in the near future," State Department spokesman Kurtis Cooper said in a statement after U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns and his counterparts from China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany held discussions by phone. "They had a good discussion in keeping with the positive atmosphere of their conversations" in recent days, Cooper said.