"Dmitry Medvedev noted with satisfaction the Iranian president's positive assessment of the Russian initiative -- a plan of gradually restoring faith in the Iranian nuclear programme. The two sides agreed to continue consulations on this question," it said in a statement.

The two leaders spoke after European diplomats said Wednesday that the European Union had reached preliminary agreement on an EU-wide ban on oil from the Islamic republic in a move backed by the United States.

Russia has relatively close ties with Iran and has built its first nuclear power station in the southern city of Bushehr. Moscow has also delivered the nuclear fuel for the reactor.

Moscow has echoed Western concerns about the nature of the Iranian nuclear programme but has stopped short of publicly accusing Tehran of seeking atomic weapons and has always said that the standoff should be solved by diplomacy.

"Personally I think that Turkey is the best place for the talks to take place. But it should be at a place of mutual agreement," Ali Akbar Salehi said in a televised joint news conference with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

Salehi said he had asked EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who was representing the world powers, to propose a time and place for the talks, when the two met briefly recently in the German city of Bonn.

Ashton's office, however, has said it was still waiting for Iran to formally respond to an October 2011 letter Ashton sent offering to resume the talks, which were suspended a year ago.

Salehi brushed aside that demand, saying Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, "has said in the past couple of months that Iran is ready to resume talks."

He added that Ashton had asked Davutoglu if Turkey could host the next meeting between Iran and the so-called 5+1 Group comprising UN permanent Security Council members Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus non-permanent member Germany, and that Davutoglu had agreed.

Iran's position, Salehi said, "is a state of readiness to resume talks."

Davutoglu said in the news conference that he had conveyed Ashton's request for a formal response from Iran.

"We want to see both sides go back to the negotiating table," he said.