Special Report: Iran Nuclear Crisis

    TEHRAN, Nov. 29 (Xinhua) - Iran's Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said here on Saturday that the country's lawmakers will consider the U.S. Congress' call for talks, Iran's satellite Press TV reported.

    "The lawmakers have not rejected a request for talks from the U.S. Congress," the report quoted Larijani as saying without referring to the date and the content of the "request."

    "We have received a polite letter from the U.S. Congress on parliamentary negotiations between the two countries," the report quoted a Saturday interview of him with Iran's semi-official Fars news agency.

    "We are studying the letter. We have not rejected it, but we have not given a positive response either," he said.

    The direct talks between the two countries was on the agenda of October's meeting held in the United States between an Iranian parliamentary delegation and a group of the U.S senators.

    Iran's government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said earlier here in November that the talks between Iran and the United States is not the main issue and the U.S. policy change towards Iran is required.

    The United States and its allies have accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of a civilian nuclear program.

    Iran denies the charges and insists that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

    The United States broke off diplomatic relations with Iran on April 7, 1980 after a group of Iranian students seize the U.S. embassy in Tehran and capture some 60 U.S. diplomats in 1979, with52 of them being in captivity for 444 days in the hostage crisis.