Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, arrived in Turkish capital of Ankara Wednesday to meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Iran' nuclear issue.

Larijani, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), is accompanied by Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, SNSC's deputy secretary for International Affairs Javad Vaeedi and Deputy Head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) for International Affairs Mohammad Saeedi, according to media reports here.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to meet Larijani during a luncheon before Larijani holds talks with Solana at Ankara's Swissotel Wednesday afternoon, who tries to persuade Iran to stop uranium enrichment and return to the negotiating table.

On Thursday morning, Larijani and Solana will also have a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Gul who is the ruling party's candidate for the next presidency.

On Monday, Solana said in Luxembourg that he could not guarantee his forthcoming talks with Iran to be a success, but he would like to try again to break the impasse over the country's nuclear program.

Foreign ministers from all 27 EU members agreed on Monday in Luxembourg to introduce harsher sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programs compared with a UN Security Council resolution.

The two sides held several rounds of talks last year but failed to find a solution to solve the crisis. Their last face-to-face meeting was on February 11.

The United States has accused Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of its civilian nuclear programs.

However, Iran has shown no sign of yielding in the nuclear stand-off, saying its uranium enrichment has reached an industrial level and announcing its wishes to install over 50,000 uranium enriching centrifuges at a plant in Natanz.

Source: Xinhua