UN atomic watchdog chief Yukiya Amano said Sunday that he was adopting a "constructive spirit" and positive attitude as he headed to Tehran for talks over Iran's contentious nuclear programme.
"Nothing is certain but I stay positive and I go there with constructive spirit," said Amano at Vienna airport before boarding his flight for Iran.
"There has been good progress during the recent rounds of discussions between Iran and IAEA. So I thought that now is the right time … to visit Iran and have direct talks with high officials of Iran," he added.
The visit is Amano's first to Tehran as director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency and is expected to give clues on Iran's intentions ahead of Wednesday's talks with world powers in Baghdad.
Both events follow earlier rounds, in the IAEA's case last week and for the P5+1 — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany — in Istanbul last month, that found enough common ground to have a further meeting.
Amano said however he did not expect this trip to include a visit to Parchin, where inspectors believe Iran is conducting activities relevant to nuclear weapons development.
"This visit is very short, and I'm not an inspector," said Amano, who is accompanied by the UN agency's chief inspector, Herman Nackaerts, and the IAEA's number two Rafael Mariano Grossi.
He is scheduled to meet Iranian top officials including Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, lead nuclear negotiator Said Jalili and nuclear programme chief Fereydoun Abassi Davani.
Iran's envoy to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, will also be present.
Ahead of the Baghdad meeting, Russia said it is planning to propose imposing a 20 percent uranium enrichment limit on Iran in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, Deputy Foreign Minister Serguei Riabkov said.
"As a first step, we want Tehran to take measures to stop uranium enrichment at 20 percent," said Riabkov, according to state news agencies.
"If there is movement in this direction, then the six (P5+1) should in turn offer Iran tangible signs that the situation is improving.
"Russia hopes that the joint efforts of the six (P5+1), based on the very serious results… at Camp David, will allow us to stop the situation from deteriorating," he said.
Group of Eight leaders meeting at Camp David in the US' Maryland this week said they were "hopeful" and had a "unified" approach about talks with Iran.
Iran's nuclear programme, including its uranium enrichment to 20 percent, has been condemned through six UN resolutions that impose sanctions on Tehran.
At low enrichment levels of between 3.5 to 20 percent, uranium can be used as fuel in nuclear power stations or for scientific purposes, but any enrichment above 90 percent qualifies it for atomic arms production.
Iran has always insisted that its nuclear programme is purely civilian and peaceful.
