The United States on Friday welcomed Iran's willingness to resume talks about its nuclear program after a one-year break, saying the U.S. has long sought to have a sustained engagement and sustained discussions with Iran on a range of issues.

U.S. State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also urged Iran to confirm rapidly a specific date and location so that "we could have the kind of meeting that we did have a year ago and anticipated a year ago that we'd have follow-on discussions."

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Friday that she had received a letter from Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saed Jalili, in which he agreed to resume talks after Nov. 10. She said that "we are now in touch with Iran to agree on time and venue."

"The P-5-plus-1 will be at the table, whenever this meeting does take place, prepared to engage seriously," Crowley told reporters at a press briefing. "And we hope that Iran will do the same."

He was referring to the five permanent members of the UN Security Council -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany.