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“We will absolutely not recognise the negotiation if the other side wants to negotiate on the issue of the nuclear dossier” of Iran, Salehi, who is also acting foreign minister, said in an interview with state-run Iran newspaper.

“The technical and legal aspects of any country’s nuclear issues can be discussed only with the International Atomic Energy Agency and the agency, based on international rules and regulations, is the only authority to judge the member states’ issues,” he added.

“If we consider this as the principle… then discussing the issue, named (Iran) nuclear issue, from our point of view is a dossier fabricated by the West and discussing it with the five-plus-one about this is meaningless,” said Salehi, who oversees Tehran’s nuclear programme.

His remarks come ahead of a January 21-22 meeting in Istanbul between Iran and the six world powers — Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany — aimed at resolving a dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme, which the West fears masks a weapons drive but which Tehran insists is entirely peaceful.

Top Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have maintained that Tehran’s nuclear dossier is a “closed file.”

Prior to previous talks with the world powers, Tehran has similarly insisted that its nuclear file is not up for discussion.-AFP