International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deputy head for safeguards Olli Heinonen said on Thursday that his agency's talks with Iran on the latter's nuclear dispute witnessed "some important steps."

"We had constructive discussions and made some important steps," Heinonen said following three rounds of talks with Iranian nuclear officials.

"We will continue discussions in coming weeks," he said.

Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator Javad Vaeedi (R) speaks to journalists as International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) deputy director Olli Heinonen listens during a news conference in Tehran July 12, 2007.

An IAEA team led by Heinonen arrived in Iran on Wednesday morning in a bid to draw up a framework to resolve the dispute over the country's nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted Javad Vaeedi, Deputy Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, as saying that Iranian and IAEA officials made a "breakthrough" on drawing up a benchmark to settle the technical dispute.

The two sides reached substantial agreement on composition of the benchmark, Vaeedi said at the end of the latest round of talks with the IAEA officials.

"We divided subjects of the nuclear program into two parts --the past and present," Vaeedi said. "We made breakthrough in both parts."

The idea to draw up the framework was put forward by Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani last month when he was in Madrid, Spain for talks with the European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana about Iran's nuclear program.

Late last month, in a meeting with the IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei in Vienna, Larijani invited a delegation from the IAEA to visit Iran and hold talks with Iranian officials overdrawing an action plan to put an end to the stalemate between Iran and the UN nuclear watchdog.

(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2007)