Vienna:
A senior U.S. official said after high-level nuclear talks with Iran on Wednesday that some progress continued to be made but much work remained to be done, adding the goal was still to reach a deal by a late November deadline.
The State Department official spoke after about six hours of talks between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton in Vienna.
"We've been chipping away at some of the issues. Everybody has put ideas on the table to see if we can move the ball forward," the official said. "We have and continue to make some progress but there's a substantial amount of work to be done."
Iran and six world powers - the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain - aim to end a decade-old nuclear standoff by a self-imposed Nov. 24 deadline, although both Tehran and Moscow have indicated that more time may be required.
The negotiations are centred on curbing Iran's atomic activity, which Tehran says is peaceful but the West fears may be aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability, in exchange for lifting sanctions.
"We hope Iran decides to take advantage of this historic opportunity," the senior U.S. official said, declining to be named.
"We can foresee a way forward through a verifiable agreement that both resolves the international community's concerns about ... Iran's nuclear programme and also provides the Iranian people with more economic opportunity and an end to isolation," the official added.
© Thomson Reuters 2014