The comments by Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, indicated that the two sides had failed again to finalise a deal that would allow the IAEA to restart an investigation into Tehran's atomic activities.

"In addition to removing some differences and agreeing on some points in the text...the two sides decided to review and exchange views about the new proposals that were given in this meeting, in the next meeting," he said, according to the Fars report.