No military site inspections

Tehran rejected a key Western demand for site inspections yesterday as US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart launched crunch talks to secure a nuclear deal ahead of a looming deadline.

The Geneva talks between Kerry and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in the run-up to the June 30 deadline come amid heightened diplomatic moves to try and end a 12-year standoff and put a nuclear bomb beyond Iran's reach.

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Kerry and Zarif huddled for negotiations in a leading hotel, greeting each other warmly and chatting as they walked together along the corridor to the meeting room.

Asked by a journalist whether they expected to meet the deadline, Zarif smiled and said: "We will try." Kerry did not respond.

But even as talks got underway, senior Iranian nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi told state television it would be "out of the question" for UN inspectors to question Iranian scientists and inspect military site inspections as part of a final nuclear deal with world powers.

After an interim accord struck in Geneva in November 2013, Washington and Tehran are trying to nail the final details of a ground-breaking agreement that would see Iran curtail its nuclear ambitions in return for a lifting of crippling international sanctions.

Sealing a long-elusive deal with the Islamic republic could give US President Barack Obama his biggest foreign policy achievement yet.

After three decades of enmity, it would also pave the way to bringing Iran back into the international fold and create fresh impetus to resolve a host of conflicts in the Middle East.

On April 2, Iran and the "P5+1" -- as the US and its partners are known -- agreed after eight days of tough talks in the Swiss city of Lausanne to the main outlines of a nuclear deal, with Tehran agreeing to rein in and mothball large sections of its nuclear programme.

Since the April 2 accord, technical experts have been meeting behind the scenes to overcome the remaining issues. But many of the decisions now need to be made at a political level.

Several sticking points remain, such as the possible military dimensions of the Iranian programme. Iran also is demanding an accelerated lifting of US, EU and UN sanctions, while the P5+1 wants a "snapback" mechanism to be put in place, enabling the measures to be quickly reimposed if Tehran breaks the deal.

Both US and Iran under immense pressure from hardliners not to make major concessions.