INTENSE IRAN NUKE TALKS RESUME AS GERMANY SEEKS RAPID PROGRESS

Indirect talks between Tehran and Washington on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal resumed in Vienna on Saturday as the European Union (EU) said negotiations were "intense" and Germany called for rapid progress, Francois Murphy reported for Reuters.

The sixth round of talks began as usual with a meeting of remaining parties to the deal - Iran, Russia, China, France, Britain, Germany, and the EU - in the basement of a luxury hotel.

The US delegation to the talks, known as the Joint Commission of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPoA), is based in a hotel across the street as Iran refuses face-to-face meetings.

The talks' chief coordinator, EU foreign policy official Enrique Mora, who is leading the shuttle diplomacy between Iran and the US, has said he expects a deal in this round of talks.

Other envoys, however, are more cautious, saying difficult issues are yet to be resolved.

"We are making progress but the negotiations are intense and a number of issues (remain), including on how steps are to be implemented," an EU spokesman said in a statement to reporters, adding that the aim was "to find ways to get very close to a final agreement in the coming days."

The top Iranian negotiator, Abbas Araqchi, suggested it was unlikely the talks would conclude before Iran's presidential election on Friday. "I don't think we will be able to reach a final conclusion in Vienna this week," Iranian state media quoted Araqchi as saying.

The JCPoA imposed strict limits on Iran's nuclear activities designed to extend the time Tehran would need to obtain enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon, if it chose to, to at least a year from two to three months.

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