The United States has said it held "substantive" talks with Iran in Geneva on Wednesday evening to expedite negotiations for a nuclear deal, adding that the two sides were holding another meeting on night, Press TV reported.
US State Department officials said on Wednesday evening that Secretary of State John Kerry and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif held talks for about five hours in the Swiss city, AFP reported.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the talks ended at about 06:00 p.m. local time (1700 GMT), but the two diplomats were set to hold a second meeting after about 90 minutes at a hotel in Geneva.
"They had substantive meetings for approximately five hours today and they discussed a broad range of issues with a small group of staff from each side," one senior official said.
After the talks, Zarif said that the two sides have reached a stage in which the other side has to make decisions "in order to [help us] progress."
He added that the talks will show "the readiness of the two parties to move forward to speed up the process."
The meeting in Geneva came before a fresh round of nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 countries - the US, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany. Both sides are still working on outstanding issues for a final deal over the Iranian nuclear program.
They seek to reach a comprehensive nuclear deal by the July 1 deadline. The scale of Iran's uranium enrichment and the timetable for the lifting of anti-Iran sanctions are seen as major sticking points.