Elbaradei: Iran nuclear fuel talks off to a good start

The US, Russia, France and Iran have concluded their first meeting in Vienna. Their discussions of Iran's nuclear program were organized by the International Atomic Energy Agency with a key focus on overseas nuclear fuel purchases.

The closed door meeting was held at the IAEA headquarters in Vienna.

It's hoped that Iran will agree to transfer its uranium enrichment activities to other countries and also offer a timetable for doing so.

After the meeting, the IAEA Director-General spoke positively about its progress.

Mohamed Elbaradei, IAEA Director-General, said, "We had, this afternoon, quite a constructive meeting. We are off to a good start. Most of the technical issues have been discussed and we are going to continue our meeting tomorrow morning at 10:00."

The meeting will last two to three days.

Iran has signaled that overseas nuclear fuel purchases does not mean it will halt uranium enrichment. The IAEA says Iran has been able to produce enriched uranium with a purity of about five percent.

Iran says its research reactor requires a higher purity of enriched uranium. If it can't be purchased from abroad, Iran will produce it.

Earlier this month, talks between Iran and the six big powers produced an agreement in principle to ship most of Iran's existing low-grade enriched uranium to Russia and France. The enriched uranium, with purity of 20 percent, would be then transported back to Iran.