The European Union's top diplomat Catherine Ashton told journalists they agreed to fresh talks in Istanbul to "discuss practical ideas and ways of cooperating towards the resolution of our core concerns about the nuclear issue."

But Iran's top negotiator Saeed Jalili said barely an hour later that both sides agreed only to further "talks based on cooperation" in Istanbul at the end of January and that everything else was "not true."

"The only outcome of our talks today was the agreement we reached to organise a set of talks based on cooperation... and anything other than this has no value," said Jalili, adding that additional points were a sign of "disrespect."

Jalili insisted that parties to the Geneva talks agreed on the final wording, and that he "didn't think parties would say differently from what happened."

AFP