TEHRAN, May 11 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi denied here Monday that Iran has received a U.S. letter intended to fix a deadline for talks with Tehran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

    Addressing reporters in his weekly press briefing, he also denied claims of a "Zionist" publication claiming that Tehran and Washington will negotiate by October 2009.

    On Saturday, Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported that the United States has set "October as its target for completing the first round of talks with Iran on its nuclear issue."

    According to Ha'aretz, special U.S. envoy to the Persian Gulf Dennis Ross has told a senior European diplomat recently that "The United States will end its first round of talks with Iranian nuclear negotiators sometime this autumn, probably October."

    Washington and its allies, including Israel, have accused Tehran of being involved in developing nuclear weapons secretly. Iran, however, has denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for generating electricity only.