(Xinhua) -- EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana started talks Saturday with Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili over Tehran's disputed nuclear program in the presence of U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns. Burns, the first U.S. diplomat to attend negotiations with Iran in 30 years, will be listening, not negotiating, in the talks, U.S. officials said. But his presence was widely seen as a major policy shift by Washington on Iran.
At the one-day meeting, Solana is expected to sound out Iran's position on the long-standing dispute. The West fears that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at making atomic bombs instead of generating power. Tehran says its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes only.
The talks would focus on an updated package of incentives offered by six world powers (five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) to Tehran in a bid to breathe life into the deadlocked talks.
The package of incentives suggests that Iran get a temporary reprieve from economic and financial sanctions in exchange for freezing its enrichment activities.