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John Kerry joining Iran nuclear talks

US SECRETARY of State John Kerry is to arrive in Geneva to join negotiations about Iran's nuclear programme, the State Department announced yesterday, raising expectations that a deal to curb Tehran's nuclear program could be in the works. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Mr Kerry, pictured, would arrive early today, joining Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov. They will lend weight to negotiations aimed at beginning a rollback of Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for easing US and international sanctions.

Negotiators have been working since Wednesday to find language acceptable to Iran and its six negotiating partners - the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany. As negotiations moved into the evening, a diplomat in Geneva for the talks said some progress was being made on a key sticking point - Iran's claim to a right to produce nuclear fuel. Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Catherine Ashton, the European Union's top diplomat, have met repeatedly trying to resolve that and other differences.