Iran and world powers have met in Kazakhstan for new talks seeking an elusive breakthrough on the Iranian nuclear crisis, with Tehran defiantly insisting its rights must be recognised.
The decade-old nuclear dispute has left the Islamic republic's economy badly hurt by UN sanctions and Tehran risking military action from its arch foe Israel.
At stake at the two-day talks in the Kazakh mountain city of Almaty will be whether Iran is ready to accept a series of demands that the powers presented at the last such negotiations at the same venue in February.
Those talks ended with unusual expressions of cautious optimism from both sides, with Iran describing that meeting as "positive" and the world powers more cooly as "useful".
But chief Iranian negotiator Saeed Jalili was in defiant mood going into the new round of negotiations on Friday, indicating that Tehran had no intention of giving ground on the key concession demanded by the West.
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He told the six world powers -- comprising the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany and known collectively as the P5+1 -- that Iran demanded immediate recognition of its right to enrich uranium.
"We think that they can open up tomorrow's (Friday's) talks with one phrase - and that is to accept Iran's right, particularly its right to enrich," Jalili said in a speech on Thursday at an Almaty university.
The demand is inherently objectionable to the powers because Iran is prohibited from enriching uranium by the United Nations and is heavily sanctioned for its secretive work.
"We hope that in Almaty, they do not repeat the bitter experience they have gone through in the 34 years of our revolution and that they make the right conclusion this spring," he said referring to the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted the shah.
Jalili also appeared to downplay the chances of his one-on-one meeting with chief US negotiator Wendy Sherman - talks Washington has been seeking for years.
"What our nation is expecting is for the US to correct its behaviour, and not in just words, and tomorrow in Almaty they are in for another test," said Jalili.
But his deputy Ali Bagheri promised a real effort from Iran to find a workable solution in Kazakhstan.
"We are entering the talks with specific and path-clearing proposals," he told reporters.
Failure could prove costly to both sides. A possible war would likely see a global spike in oil prices and draw in other regional powers at an already unstable time in the Middle East.
