European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Wednesday he was set to visit Tehran for fresh nuclear talks but didn't expect any "miracles" in efforts to convince Iran to suspend uranium enrichment.
"I will be in Tehran," he told members of the European Parliament, without naming a date. "I have decided together with the six countries that are involved in the negotiations to go back there and meet with the leaders.
"I don't expect miracles," he said. "But I think it's important for us to continue extending also a hand, therefore to make clear that we have a double track approach," referring to negotiations and U.N. sanctions.
Solana said he would take the "upgraded position" offered by major world powers to Iran two years ago when he travels to the capital - a trip an E.U. official said could take place in mid-June.
Asked later to confirm the trip would take place then, Solana said: "We are finishing the latest arrangements, but around that date, yes."
In an effort to persuade Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, permanent Security Council members the U.K., China, France, Russia and the U.S. plus Germany have re-worked an offer of incentives originally made in 2006.
Solana has been battling to establish high-level talks aimed at getting Iran to accept the political and trade incentives, but the Islamic republic refuses to suspend enrichment as a precondition for negotiating.
Iran insists it has the right to enrich uranium to make nuclear fuel to help meet its electricity needs and has so far defied Security Council resolutions which demand it halt the process.
At highly refined levels, such work can also make the fissile core of an atomic bomb but Iran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and has vehemently denied it is seeking to make weapons.