Foreign ministers from key European Union (EU) members and Iran's top nuclear negotiator began last-chance talks on Tehran's nuclear program on Friday, three days before a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Iran's chief negotiator Ali Larijani, as well as French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and a senior British official standing in for Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived early on Friday morning for the talks.

However, the ongoing negotiations are expected to be hard due to Iran's refusal to return to a moratorium on its activities related to uranium enrichment. The EU insists Iran should do so.

The IAEA's 35-member board of governors will meet on Monday to discuss a report by the IAEA chief, which asserts that Iran has ignored a Feb. 4 call to re-suspend enrichment work.

The board had adopted a resolution early last month to report Iran's case to the UN Security Council, but called on the powerful UN body to withhold punitive action until the agency's meeting.

Source: Xinhua