Kerry meets Iran foreign minister to close gaps in nuclear talks

[YahooNews]

By Yeganeh Torbati and Lesley Wroughton GENEVA (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday important gaps needed to be bridged in high-stakes talks with Iran on curbing its nuclear program and he began talks with Tehran's foreign minister to try to clinch an interim deal. "I want to emphasize there is not an agreement at this point," Kerry said shortly after arriving in Geneva, tempering expectations of an imminent breakthrough that could reduce the risk of a Middle East war over Iran's nuclear aspirations. Iran spelled out a major difference soon afterwards, with a member of its negotiating team, Majid Takt-Ravanchi, telling Mehr news agency that oil and banking sanctions imposed on Tehran should be eased during the first phase of any deal. The powers have offered Iran access to up to $50 billion in Iranian funds frozen abroad for many years but ruled out any broad dilution of sanctions in the early going of an agreement.