Iran raises nuclear issue in Geneva talks: diplomat

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran's nuclear negotiator touched on the country's nuclear program in his opening statement at talks with six world powers in Geneva, a Western diplomat close to the meeting said Thursday.

He said that Iran's nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili mentioned Tehran's disputed nuclear program "in a general way" in his opening statement, even though Jalili and other Iranian officials had said they would not be willing to discuss Tehran's "nuclear rights" at the one-day talks in Geneva.

"The EU3 (Britain, France and Germany) restated that the July 2008 offer is still on the table," the diplomat, who was present at the talks, said on condition of anonymity.

Along with the Europeans are senior U.S., Russian and Chinese officials and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana. The six powers made an offer of economic and political incentives to Iran in exchange for a suspension of sensitive nuclear activities.

The diplomat said it was unclear if the Iranians would give any signs behind closed doors that they would be open to a compromise on the issue of suspending enrichment, as demanded by five U.N. Security Council resolutions.

"We'll know better this afternoon," the diplomat said. The talks at a villa in the Geneva countryside are expected to run into the late afternoon or early evening.

Iran has so far refused to halt its enrichment program, saying it is a sovereign right. It insists its atomic program is not aimed at producing weapons, as Western powers fear, but generating electricity.

(Reporting by Louis Charbonneau, editing by Dominic Evans)