Iran says more nuclear meetings may be needed

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's foreign minister said talks with world powers on the country's disputed nuclear programme, due to start in Geneva later on Saturday, were a positive step but that more meetings may be needed.

"We evaluate today's Geneva negotiations as positive and constructive," Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters in Tehran.

"Today's meeting might continue with several others so that the view points of all sides can be put on the table so that we reach ... agreement," he said.

At the one-day meeting in Geneva, major world powers will sound out Iran's readiness to negotiate an end to the long dispute over nuclear work the West fears is aimed at making atomic bombs.

Senior U.S. diplomat Williams Burns will join European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and officials from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China for the meeting with Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili.

The unprecedented participation of a senior U.S. official in the meeting, together with Iranian comments playing down the likelihood of an attack by the United States and Israel, have raised hopes of progress.

But the Islamic Republic, which says its atomic activities are solely aimed at producing electricity, has repeatedly rejected the powers' key demand that it suspends uranium enrichment, which can have both civilian and military uses.

(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb and Zahra Hosseinian; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Jon Boyle)