TEHRAN -- Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has suggested that Italian officials attend nuclear talks between Iran and the European Union, a German publication said on its website.

In an interview with Die Welt, Prodi stated that Tehran and Rome are significant business partners and “I have not realized why Italy, as an important European side, should not enter negotiations with Iran over the nuclear issue.”
Since Iran is regarded as a significant business partner of Italy, Rome has so far adopted an appropriate approach towards the Iranian nuclear issue, he noted.
Referring to French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner’s push for further sanctions on the Islamic Republic, the Italian premier said “I don’t understand the EU’s intention to impose sanction on Iran.”
Kouchner, who caused a stir last month by saying the world must prepare for war with Iran, told Europe 1 radio that “nothing is more dangerous than the situation in Iran. “The Iranians must stop enriching uranium, because what they are doing encourages the experts to think they are possibly moving towards the atomic bomb and not the civil nuclear power to which they have absolute right.”
However, he later on expressed regret that his statements about Iran’s nuclear program have been distorted by the media.
“My purpose was to prevent war,” Kouchner told Ali Larijani, former Iranian Supreme National Security Council secretary, in a telephone conversation.
“I will support your constructive measures with Mr. ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Kouchner added.
Under an August 21 deal, the IAEA and Tehran agreed on a timetable for addressing the remaining ambiguities about Iran’s nuclear activities. IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei has called the agreement “an important step in the right direction.”
Larijani and his successor Saeed Jalili held nuclear talks with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Prodi in Rome on Tuesday and Wednesday and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday in Berlin.
Prodi described the talks with Larijani and Jalili as ""extremely important and useful"", adding, ""Italy encourages this dialogue as the only tool for finding a solution at the Security Council.""