EU, Iran strive for nuclear deal
 |  The officials are pictured at a news conference in Brussels in December 2004. |
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 EU foreign ministers hold urgent talks with Iran on the fate of Tehran's nuclear program.
 Iran is defiant at the U.N., pledging to move ahead with its nuclear program.
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BRUSSELS, Belgium (CNN) -- Iran and the European Union could conclude an agreement on Iran's nuclear program sooner rather than later, the two sides have said after a meeting in Geneva.
The meeting on Wednesday between the EU-3 -- Britain, France and Germany -- and Iran was hurriedly scheduled last week after Iran threatened to restart its frozen uranium enrichment program and the EU said it would take the matter straight to the U.N. Security Council.
"What we discussed today, in the first ministerial meeting we've had for six months with the Iranians, was a set of proposals ... which had been discussed earlier by our officials with the Iranians," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told CNN after the meeting.
"They're on the table, and we said we would put these in much more detail by the end of July, beginning of August. And they would be within the context of the Paris agreement, and also in the context of the Paris agreement remaining in force.
"And what the Paris agreement says is that all uranium enrichment conversion activities are suspended until there is a long-term agreement in force."
Neither Straw nor Iran's chief negotiator, Supreme National Security Council Secretary Hassan Rohani, offered particulars of the proposals.
"The essence of our position was that the negotiations should not be procrastinated," Rohani told CNN. "We were persistent in asking our European interlocutors that all of their proposals should be put in one place and put forward."
Rohani said that "from the standpoint that the duration is now finite," Wednesday's meeting could be considered progress.
The Iranian negotiator told CNN that he said during the meeting that Iran does not plan to develop nuclear weapons, but sees the successful implementation of nuclear energy as a path to preserve Iran's security.
Rohani defended Iran from complaints that it had withheld information about its nuclear programs from the International Atomic Energy Agency, saying the activities the country withheld from the agency were well within its rights.
The only violation of international law, he said were "our failures to report, nothing more." The agency has found no evidence of enrichment or diversion of materials for weaponry, he said.
He was concerned, however, that the United States -- which refuses to participate in the talks but backs the European effort to find a solution -- considers Iran's membership in the World Trade Organization as an incentive and had recently dropped its objections to Iran joining in order to aid the EU talks.
"This is not a significant issue," he said. "It has always been our right to be acceding to the WTO. ... Why has the United States been blocking this up to now?
"At the same time, I think this can be considered as an appropriate gesture."
Straw, speaking to CNN, said that "we wish to see the start of those negotiations" but only "as long as the Paris agreement holds."
Earlier, Rohani told CNN that it is Iran's vision to restart the "least sensitive part of the fuel process" -- converting uranium to hexofluodride gas -- and then outsource the more controversial element, the actual enrichment itself, which can lead to material fit for nuclear weapons.
Straw and his French and German counterparts, Michel Barnier and Joschka Fischer, and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana met with Rohani.
Straw and Rohani said the agreement would assert Iran's rights under the 1996 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The Iranian representative added that Tehran would make a final decision about the proposals.
"If we are convinced that within a reasonably short time, there is a prospect for agreement with the Europeans, then it is in everyone's interest to continue with that effort," Rohani told CNN. "The foundation of the Paris agreement is based on us being able to exercise all the peaceful activities without discrimination."
"The West," he said, "has to accept this because all we are seeking is our rights within the context of international law."
Wednesday's agreement to continue the process of negotiations puts off an attempt to take Iran to the United Nations, a position favored by the United States although it has backed the EU's efforts to negotiate. For its part, the EU says it will take the matter to the United Nations if negotiations ultimately fail.
Rohani said the Paris agreement was about more than Iran's nuclear program, however.
"The essence is that against the actions that Europeans would take, we would take steps to allay the concerns," he said. "And as I'm sure you know, the basis of the Paris agreement is not only the nuclear issue. It also includes the entirety of relations between Europe and Iran and also regional matters."
CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour contributed to this report.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
