LACK OF CONFIDENCE A CAUSE FOR STALEMATE

    Then why the uncertain outlook? According to IAEA experts, though a lot of technical barriers need to be overcomed before Iran could turn the low-enriched uranium into highly enriched, theoretically it is viable that the purity could be constantly increased through repeated refining.

    That's exactly what the Western countries fear. For that season, they have repeatedly asked Iran to freeze its enrichment activities and have sponsored three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions to press Iran to do so.

    But Iran, which says it is enriching uranium only for electricity uses, continues its activities despite the pressure.

    Iran's stance is not surprising. As pointed out by Prof. Martin Kalinowski from the Natural Science and Peace Research Center of the University of Hamburg on Austria Radio 1's Midday Forum program on Monday, the crux of the dispute over the Iranian nuclear issue is the mutual distrust and suspicion between Iran and the West, which, having been running for more than 20 years, has driven the issue into stalemate.

    Iran was entitled to the peaceful use of nuclear power, but the country should also make its nuclear plans more transparent to ease Western fears, said the professor.

    Meanwhile, military threats would never resolve the Iranian nuclear issue, which could only be solved through cooperation, added the professor.

    He said Iran buying enriched uranium from abroad to meet the need of its nuclear industry might be a solution, as it could both ensure Iran's right to nuclear power generation and reduce the risk of Iran refining the material to high purity suitable for bombs.

    The talks, supposed to be a technical meeting to discuss the details, will resume on Tuesday and last "two to three days," according to diplomats, but with Iran's defiant stance, the outlook for the talks remains clouded.