A top Iranian nuclear official said Tehran was ready to hold talks with the West on its atomic drive "without preconditions," state television reported on Tuesday,amid US threats of more sanctions. "Negotiations without preconditions is Iran's main stance on the nuclear issue," Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency,Ali Asghar Soltanieh,was quoted as saying. Six major powers involved in the talks,the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany,called in April for a resumption of the negotiations,which had stalled in September. US President Barack Obama has given Iran until September to take up the six-power offer of talks on trade benefits if it freezes uranium enrichment,or face harsher sanctions. But prospects of a breakthrough have been clouded by the deep political turmoil in Iran over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June. Iran has said it is drafting a new package for the world powers in a bid to solve global issues,including the nuclear dossier. Soltanieh's comments come a day before Ahmadinejad,who set Iran on a collision course with the West during his first four-year term is due to submit his new cabinet to parliament for approval.
