The negotiations, which began Tuesday in Geneva, had been expected to end Thursday.

Britain, France and Germany want Iran to abandon enrichment as an "objective guarantee" that it is not developing nuclear weapons and are offering in return trade, security and technology rewards.

A new round of talks, the fifth since December, is to be held later this month, possibly in a capital of the one of the three states negotiating for the European Union -- Britain, France and Germany, another diplomat said.

The diplomat said much of the discussion this week was to prepare the next meeting, which will move from the expert to a more political "steeering committee" level designed to review progress since December.

Iran's top national security official Hassan Rowhani described the talks as "successful" despite the reported deadlock, the official Iranian news agency IRNA said Thursday.

Rowhani did not elaborate, but his comment comes on the back of warnings from other senior Iranian officials that the negotiations were in danger of breaking off.

"Iran does not see nuclear technology as means for providing security. It is only regarded as substitute to oil and gas resources," Rowhani was quoted as saying. "We have to be self-sufficient in nuclear fuel."

"There is some very hard haggling going on," a senior European diplomat close to the talks in Geneva told AFP.

European lawmakers Thursday urged Iran to stop making "confusing and contradictory" statements about its nuclear programme and reaffirm its commitment to suspend uranium enrichment, in a motion at the European Parliament.

Pakistan meanwhile confirmed Thursday its disgraced nuclear hero Abdul Qadeer Khan provided Iran with centrifuges, the machine that enriches uranium to what can be bomb-grade levels, but said the government was in no way involved in the deal.

"Dr Qadeer has provided Iran with centrifuges but the government of Pakistan had nothing to do with it. He gave them from the black market," Information Minister Sheikh Rashid told AFP.

The first public disclosure that Khan gave Iran centrifuges needed to enrich uranium comes as Washington is mounting pressure on the Muslim country to give up its alleged nuclear weapons programme which Tehran insists is for peaceful purposes.

Iran also insists it has the right to enrich uranium under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and that it will eventually resume fuel cycle work.

The EU-Iran talks began in December after Iran had agreed the previous month to temporarily suspend uranium enrichment as a confidence-building measure.

The European approach is one of "constructive engagement," in contrast with the United States which wants to bring Tehran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Washington is however preparing to back the European initiative. Diplomats say US cooperation is needed if Europe is to deliver on the trade and security benefits Iran seeks, which range from joining the World Trade Organization to having US economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic lifted.

A second European diplomat said Britain, France and Germany have told the Iranians that if they insist on enriching uranium they should "put in place objective guarantees as good as their abandoning the fuel cycle and they haven't come back (to the Europeans) on that."

The diplomat said the Europeans were content to have the negotiating process drag on.

"As long as we're talking, the Iranians are suspending their fuel cycle activities and that is good," the diplomat said.

A third European diplomat said the whole process may be in a state of limbo until after Iranian presidential elections in June decide whether pragmatists or Revolutionary Guard hardliners take power.

"One side may be prepared to make a deal. Another side may want a bomb at all costs," the diplomat said.

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