EU's Ashton cautiously welcomes Iran offer of talks

BRUSSELS, July 26 (Reuters) - European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton welcomed an announcement by Iran on Monday that it would be willing to resume negotiations over a nuclear fuel swap, but said she wanted to see the details first.

"As far as I can see this is to be welcomed... but we need to study the details," she told reporters at a news briefing after the EU approved an extra round of sanctions against Iran over its uranium enrichment programme.

Earlier Tehran's official IRNA news agency quoted the Iranian envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency as saying that Iran was ready to return to negotiations on a nuclear fuel swap, stalled last year, "without conditions".