With Iran insisting on its right to make nuclear fuel, and the West concerned this could be used to manufacture atom bombs, the two sides remain far apart, European Union and Iranian officials said after meeting in Vienna.

French foreign ministry political director Stanislas de Laboulaye told AFP that the Iranian and EU "positions are not the same. We repeated our positions and the Iranians repeated theirs."

"Both sides agreed to consult their respective leaderships with the view of holding another round of talks in January with the aim of agreeing on a framework for (formal) negotiations," De Laboulaye told reporters.

Iranian negotiator Javad Vaidi said the new talks would be in Vienna and that he hoped the two sides would have "more opportunity" to move towards agreement.

Wednesday's talks between foreign ministry officials from Britain, France and Germany and the Iranian delegation headed by Vaidi were the first contact between the two sides since August, when Iran resumed uranium conversion.

Conversion is the first step in making enriched uranium, which can be fuel for nuclear reactors or atom bomb material.

While Tehran has gone no further than conversion, it made clear Wednesday it would not back down on the right to do so, which it claims is guaranteed under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

"From Iran's point of view the subject of the talks is to remove the suspension of the uranium processing facilities and this must happen within a clear timetable," Hossein Entezami, spokesman for Iran's Supreme National Security Council, told Iranian state radio.

The trio of EU negotiators, the so-called EU-3, want Iran to abandon enrichment as a guarantee it will not make nuclear weapons. In return, Iran would get trade and security benefits.

They threaten to take Iran before the UN Security Council for possible sanctions if it does not give up enrichment.

But Iran insists on the right to enrich uranium on its own soil, Iran's Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said in Tehran.

Iran has rejected a Russian idea to do some fuel cycle work at home while enriching uranium only on Russian soil, which would keep this strategic activity out of the country.

An EU diplomat who asked to remain anonymous said: "At least it looks like the Iranians want negotiations."

But the diplomat said the divide was so great over enrichment that it "was unclear how there could be a compromise."

Another diplomat close to the talks said the discussion Wednesday was "heated."

"The Iranians said they wanted to pursue their nuclear program. The Europeans said they could do this in Russia but then the Iranians said foreign countries could do joint ventures in Iran in order to make sure that Iranian enrichment was not dangerous," the diplomat said.

The United States and the EU charge that Iran is using its civilian program to hide nuclear weapons development.

In Washington the White House said that it backed the EU trio's diplomatic efforts.

"Our position is that we support the European 3 in their discussions with Iran. And we'll see where those discussions go," spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday.

The tough Iranian stance comes at a time when Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has raised an international outcry through a series of statements against Israel, notably his remark in October that the Jewish state should be wiped off the map.

"The real diplomatic work at the moment is trying to bring the Russians on board so we can take this to the Security Council," another EU-3 diplomat said.

Russia, which has a veto on the Council, is building Iran's first nuclear power reactor and says there is no sign Iran seeks atomic weapons. It is almost certain to resist this pressure.