LONDON, May 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Britain's Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on Monday expressed cautiousness over forthcoming nuclear talks with Iran.

    According to the reports by Iran's IRNA news agency, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said that the next round of nuclear negotiations between Iran and the European Union (EU) was slated on May 23, and the place of negotiations had not yet been determined yet.

    But as for the outcome of the forthcoming talks, Straw told a news conference in London he remained cautiously hopeful. "There have been many predictions that these discussions might fail in the past, so far, despite the difficulties, which are as everybody understands made trickier by the impending Presidential elections in Iran on 17 June, I remain cautiously hopeful." Straw said.

    "What we seek is a pathway by which Iran is able to do that to which it is entitled, namely to generate electricity by means of nuclear energy, at the same time as there are very clear objective guarantees that Iran is not using its nuclear program as a cover to build a nuclear weapons program." Straw said. Britain, France and Germany are acting on behalf of the 25-nation European Union in negotiations with Iran to seek its guarantees that it will not use its nuclear program to make weapons, as Washington suspects. Enditem