MUSCAT: The United States wants a nuclear agreement `as soon as possible`, Iran said after rare talks on Saturday, as US President Donald Trump threatens military action if they fail to reach a deal.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, who briefly spoke faceto-face with Trump`s special envoy Steve Witkoff during the indirect meeting in Oman, said the talks would resume next Saturday.

`The American side also said that a positive agreement was one that can be reached as soon as possible but that will not be easy and will require a willingness on both sides,` Araghchi told Iranian state television.

`At today`s meeting, I think we came very close to a basis for negotiation... Neither we nor the other party want fruitless negotiations, discussions for discussions` sake, time wasting or talks that drag on forever,` he added.

A statement from the White House said: `The discussions were very positive and constructive. Special Envoy Witkoff`s direct communication today was a step forward in achieving a mutually beneficial outcome,` it said.

Oman`s foreign minister actedas intermediary in the talks in Muscat, Iran said. The Americans had called for the meetings to be face-to-face.

However, the negotiators also spoke directly for `a few minutes`, Iran`s foreign ministry said. It said the talks were held `in a constructive and mutually respectful atmosphere`.

The long-term adversaries, who have not had diplomatic relations for more than 40 years, are seeking a new nuclear deal after Trump pulled out of an earlier agreement during his first term in 2018.

Araghchi, a seasoned diplomat and key architect of the 2015 accord, and Witkoff, a real estate magnate, led the delegations in the highest-level Iran-US nuclear talks since the previous accord`s collapse.The two parties were in `separate halls` and `conveying their views and positions to each other through the Omani foreign minister`, Iran`s foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Bagaei posted on X.

The process took place in a `friendly atmosphere`, Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi said.

Iran, weakened by Israel`s pummelling of its allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza, is seeking relief from wide-ranging sanctions hobbling its economy.

Tehran has agreed to the meetings despite baulking at Trump`s `maximum pressure` campaign of ramping up sanctions and repeated military threats.

Meanwhile, the United States, hand-in-glove with Israel, wantsto stop Tehran from ever getting close to developing a nuclear bomb.

Open to `compromise` There were no visible signs of the high-level meeting at a luxury hotel in Muscat, the same venue where the 2015 agreement was struck when Barack Obama was US president.

Witkof f told The Wall Street Journal earlier that the US position starts with demanding that Iran completely dismantle its nuclear programme a view held by hardliners around Trump that few expect Iran to accept.

`That doesn`t mean, by the way, that at the margin we`re not going to find other ways to find compromise between the two countries,` Witkoff told the newspaper.

`Where our red line will be, there can`t be weaponisation of your nuclear capability,` he added.

The talks were revealed in a surprise announcement by Trump during a White House appearance with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu onMonday.

Hours before the talks began, Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One: `I want Iran to be a wonderful, great, happy country.

But they can`t have a nuclear weapon.` Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei`s adviser Ali Shamkhani said Iran sought `a real and fair agreement`.

The latest International Atomic Energy Agency report said Iran had an estimated 274.8 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 per cent, nearing the weapons grade of 90 per cent.-AFP