Turkey FM to meet senior US official for Iran nuclear talks

(ANKARA) - Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was due to meet US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns late Monday for talks on Iran's disputed nuclear programme, Turkish diplomatic sources told AFP.

The meeting in Ankara would also focus on a wide range of issues from the Arab Spring to the developments in Iraq and Syria, the sources said.

Burns' visit is part of a regular consultation mechanism between Turkey and the United States, they added.

The United States has ratcheted up sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, which the West believes masks a drive to develop atomic weapons.

Iran insists the programme is exclusively for peaceful purposes.

The European Union is expected to announce further sanctions of its own, including an oil embargo, at the end of this month.

Turkey says it is only bound by sanctions decided by the UN Security Council.

Turkey met around 40 percent of its oil needs from Iran in 2011, and its biggest refiner Tupras recently made a deal to purchase nine million tons of crude from Tehran.

Burns's visit comes amid rising tensions, with Iran holding naval war games and warning arch-foe the United States to keep an aircraft carrier out of the Gulf.

Washington dismissed the warning.

Davutoglu was in Tehran on Thursday, when his Iranian counterpart Ali Akbar Salehi said he would like to see a resumption of the nuclear talks with world powers last held in Istanbul a year ago.

"Turkey is ready to do its best for a peaceful solution to the nuclear dispute," a Turkish foreign ministry diplomat told AFP.

"What's important is to reduce tension."

The diplomat said no date has been agreed yet for the resumption of nuclear talks.