The Iranian nuclear negotiators hold this week a series of meetings in Vienna meant to lay the groundwork for substantial progress in talks with world powers in Geneva on November 7-8.

The Iranian nuclear negotiators hold this week a series of meetings in Vienna meant to lay the groundwork for substantial progress in talks with world powers in Geneva on November 7-8.

On Monday UN atomic watchdog head Yukiya Amano will meet Abbass Araqchi, deputy foreign minister and Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator in Iran's fresh diplomatic push under new President Hassan Rouhani.

Araqchi told Amano that Iran had a "new approach" in the negotiations with the agency.

The same day, the International Atomic Energy Agency will hold separate talks with Iranian officials on allegations that prior to 2003, and possibly since, Tehran carried out nuclear weapons research.

Then on Wednesday and Thursday, a seven-member expert Iranian team will meet with counterparts from the six powers -- the United States, Britain, France, China, Russia and Germany -- to prepare the groundwork for the Geneva gathering.

All the meetings are behind closed doors. Only the IAEA talks are scheduled to be followed by a news conference, with new chief inspector Tero Varjoranta due to brief reporters around 1700 GMT.

"We hope Iran and the agency can adopt a new approach, in a spirit of goodwill, and can get down to resolving the remaining ambiguities in a short period," Araqchi told the ISNA news agency Friday.