Obama: Nuke deal can open opportunities for Iran

Washington: President Barack Obama says a nuclear agreement with Iran can open up "new possibilities and prosperity" for the Iranian people.

Obama's comments come in his annual videotaped message to Iranians marking the Persian new year, Nowruz. This year's message coincides with nuclear negotiations between the U.S., Iran and five other world powers.

Obama says reaching a final nuclear agreement "will be difficult." But he says he's committed to diplomacy because he believes there is a basis for a "practical solution" to the nuclear dispute.

The president says Iran would retain access to "peaceful nuclear energy" under a final agreement. He says a deal would also mean more economic growth and jobs for Iranians, as well as more opportunities for Iranian students to travel abroad.

-EU sees big gaps in nuclear talks but Iran 'commitment' to deal-

Positions between Iran and world powers diverge widely in some areas but Iranian negotiators seem "very committed" to reach an agreement on the country's disputed nuclear program, a senior EU official said in an email seen by Reuters on Thursday.

Russia, one of the six major powers seeking to persuade Iran to scale back its contested atomic activities to deny it any nuclear bomb breakout capability, separately said the two sides were "far apart" on the issue of uranium enrichment.

The remarks underlined the uphill task confronting negotiators, who aim to hammer out a final settlement of the decade-old dispute over the nature and scope of Iran's nuclear activity in the next four months.

The brief email from European Union official Helga Schmid to senior officials of EU member states was written after a meeting between Iran and the United States, France, Germany, China, Russia and Britain in Vienna on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Schmid is the deputy of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who is coordinating talks with Iran on behalf of the six nations. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful but the West fears it may be aimed at developing the capability to make atomic bombs and wants it curtailed.

In this week's talks, Iran and the powers locked horns over the future of a planned Iranian nuclear reactor with the potential to produce plutonium for bombs, and the United States warned that "hard work" would be needed to overcome differences when the sides reconvene on April 7.

This line was echoed in Schmid's email.

"Since we are at an early stage of the final and comprehensive negotiations, we still have a lot of work ahead of us. On some areas, positions differ widely," it said.

"However, the impression is that the Iranian negotiators remain very committed to reach a comprehensive solution within the agreed 6-month period," Schmid added.

She was referring to a late July deadline for a long-term deal agreed in an interim accord struck in November.

The meeting in Vienna was the second in a series that the six nations hope will produce a verifiable settlement, ensuring Iran's nuclear program is oriented to peaceful purposes only, and lay to rest the risk of a new Middle East war.