Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani has resigned, government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham said on Saturday.

 

 

"Mr. Larijani has brought forward his resignation for several times and the president now accepted it," Elham told reporters at his weekly press conference.

 

"Saeed Jalili will take his place," he added.

 

Jalili is currently Iran's deputy foreign minister for European and American affairs. According to Elham, he will replace Larijani to meet European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Rome on Tuesday.

 

Larijani was appointed as the chief of Iran's Supreme National Security Council in August, 2005, following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took his office.

 

He was believed to be close to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and considered as an uncompromising official on negotiations with the West over Tehran's disputed nuclear program.

 

Iran has been under the accusations from the US and other Western nations, which believed that Tehran is developing a nuclear weapon program under the guise of a civilian-use program.

 

Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and voiced hope for talks to defuse the nuclear standoff.

 

(Xinhua News Agency October 21, 2007)