¡¡ TEHRAN, Dec. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- A senior Iranian diplomat has said that Iran and the European Union (EU) are determined to settle the Iranian nuclear issue, the official IRNA news agency reported on Thursday.

   Mohammad-Mehdi Akhoundzadeh, Iran's Permanent Representative to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, made the comments Wednesday night in an exclusive interview with IRNA soon after the two parties wrapped up a new round of nuclear talks,said the report.

   Akhoundzadeh told IRNA that the talks was "positive" and both sides "endeavored to avoid raising issues which could exacerbate tensions and instead concentrated on creating a positive atmosphere for talks".

   "Both sides in the talks clearly manifested their strong determination to continue the negotiations next month so that theissue can finally be laid to rest," Akhoundzadeh was quoted assaying.

   Talks were the first since Iran defiantly resumed uranium conversion activities, a precursor to the enrichment in early August, during which negotiators of the two sides agreed to hold further negotiations in January 2006.

   Akhoundzadeh said that the new framework for talks and procedure for interaction by the two sides would be determined during the next round of talks in January, reiterating that the whole process of Iran's uranium enrichment must be performed at home.

   "The new negotiating team had a fresh message to the EU negotiators that calls on them to act on the preposition that  uranium enrichment activities will be conducted inside Iran and atthe same time avoid collateral issues during the talks," he added.  

    Uranium enrichment, a key step for nuclear fuel cycle construction, produces enriched uranium, which can be used both for generating electricity and for building atomic bombs.  

    The EU is trying to press Iran on an alleged Russian proposal,which allows Iran to conduct uranium conversion activities inexchange for the country's transfer of enrichment process toRussia, a measure keeping Tehran from obtaining nuclear technology crucial to making atom bombs.

   The EU insists that Iran must halt all work for nuclear fuelcycle construction, the key of which is uranium enrichment, to provide objective guarantees that its nuclear research will not beused for military purposes.

   The United States accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons secretly, a charge rejected by Tehran as politically motivated. Enditem