BERLIN, Feb. 25 (Xinhuanet)--- Iran's chief negotiator on nuclear issues said in Berlin on Friday he would welcome US assistance in the talks over his country's nuclear program.

    "The negotiating partners are the three European nations," Hassan Rowhani said after a meeting with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, but "Iran would welcome it if the United States helped."

    Germany, France and Britain are seeking to persuade Iran to abandon the uranium enrichment in return for a lucrative economic package. Washington still wants to bring Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

    Rowhani was speaking the day after Iran said it opposed any US role in the talks alongside the European Union nations.

    Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said on Thursday that "if the Americans joined the talks, the best that could happen is that they would bring nothing to the negotiations and in the worst case they would sabotage everything."

    Iran insists its nuclear program is a peaceful effort to make electricity but refuses to abandon uranium enrichment, saying it has the right to carry out enrichment under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

    Fischer said after a meeting with Rowhani that respective positions are "complex and difficult to be reconciled."

    The main issue was that how there could be "objective guarantees" that the nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful use, said Fischer. Enditem