Iran says U.S. presence at nuclear talks "positive"

By Khaled Oweis

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Iran said on Thursday U.S. participation in nuclear talks was "positive", but France said big powers still wanted Tehran to make specific proposals to resolve a dispute over Iran's nuclear work.

The United States said on Wednesday it was sending an envoy to Geneva to join nuclear talks with Iran for the first time, to underline to the Islamic Republic and others that Washington wanted a diplomatic solution to the impasse.

"The American participation is positive," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference in Damascus. "We look forward to constructive engagement", he said, referring to a new round of talks in Geneva on Saturday.

Senior U.S. diplomat Williams Burns will join EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and officials from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China for the talks.

The powers are seeking a more detailed Iranian response to their enhanced offer of financial and diplomatic incentives to halt its secretive nuclear activity that could yield atom bombs.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the U.S. presence would be "an additional asset" and that Iran's readiness for more talks was encouraging, despite its initially dismissive response to the revised package.

"We are waiting for an opening," he told reporters in English outside a European security meeting in Vienna.

"I talked to Mottaki and he was open, but open to what? That is always the case. We talk and talk with the Iranians, but it's always disillusion."