Japan to send envoy to Iran for nuclear talks
"Japan will bring up Iran's nuclear program and reiterate its request to stop uranium enrichment," a foreign ministry official said.
A senior foreign ministry official will take part in the talks, the exact date and details of which are yet to be decided, he said.
The meeting, which will look broadly at relations between Iran and Japan, was proposed by Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki when he visited Tokyo in February, the official said.
Japan, which is heavily dependent on Middle Eastern oil, has tried to maintain close relations with Iran.
Defying its closest ally the United States, Japan in 2004 inked a two-billion-dollar contract to develop Azadegan in southwestern Iran, considered one of the biggest untapped oil reserves in the world.
"If the issue of the Azadegan project is to be brought into the talks, it will be discussed separately from the issue of Iran's nuclear program," the official said.
Iran said last week it had enriched uranium to the level needed to make nuclear fuel.
The foreign ministry official said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso will visit Japan this week for talks on Iran among other issues.
Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, who holds the current EU presidency, will accompany Barroso for the annual talks with Japanese leaders from April 21 to 25.
The foreign ministry said the two sides would address "shared concerns," with Japanese media saying the Iranian nuclear issue would be at the forefront.
Moscow talks aim to find Iran consensus
Representatives of six major powers are to meet in Moscow today to work on a strategy for getting Iran to back down from its plans to develop a nuclear energy program.
Officials from Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States as well as from Germany will meet during consultations that Russia is hosting as this year's chair of the G8 (Group of Eight) wealthier countries.
The officials from the six countries will be joined by officials from the other G8 countries -- Canada, Italy and Japan -- later in the day, the Kremlin said on Monday.
Bush to seek Chinese leader's support on Iran
U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to prod his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao during talks this week to back UN Security Council action against Iran's nuclear program.
China and Russia are the only veto-wielding members in the UN Security Council that oppose placing sanctions on Iran.
Bush could ask Hu to support possible punitive measures, including sanctions, against Iran when the Chinese leader makes his first White House visit on Thursday, but Beijing would maintain that diplomacy continues to be pursued to end the crisis, experts said.
"I think obviously it will be an issue, and my guess is that both sides will express continued concern, desire for diplomatic progress and call on Iran to be constructive," said Jon Wolfsthal, a nuclear expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
"While there is a growing energy relationship with Iran, it is still not a critical relationship for China. But you know they have many reasons to want to avoid tension and conflict in the Middle East," Wolfsthal said.
Only talks will solve Iran nuclear dispute: Annan
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan wants a negotiated solution to Iran's nuclear program, he said in an interview published Sunday in the ABC newspaper, AP reported.
Annan told the conservative Madrid daily during his visit last week to Spain, that any potential military operation against Iran would only worsen an already tense international situation.
"I think the issue is being handled properly by the IAEA. I still believe that the best solution is a negotiated one, and I don't see what a military operation would resolve," ABC quoted Annan as saying. The newspaper translated his comments into Spanish.
"I hope that a negotiating spirit prevails and that the military option is just fruit of speculation," he said.
U.S. media reports have said U.S. President George W. Bush's administration was considering a military attack on Iran over its nuclear program, which Washington claims is designed to produce nuclear weapons.
Bush has dismissed those reports as "wild speculation." The U.S. is working with the Security Council to press Iran to stop its nuclear program.
German protestors urge peaceful solution to Iranian nuclear issue
German demonstrators urged during their Easter holiday for a peaceful solution to the Iranian nuclear crisis, calling for disarmament, Xinhua reported.
Thousands of people in the nationwide parades, which entered its third day, called for the avoidance of military conflict over Iran's nuclear program.
In Germany, Easter marches became a well-established part of the anti-war and anti-nuclear movements during the Cold War.
The German marches are an offshoot of anti-nuclear protest marches first staged in Britain during the Easter holiday in 1958 by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.