An "Iranian delegation expressed the desire for Iraq to host the international meeting on the Iranian nuclear file of the five permanent members of the (UN) Security Council plus Germany" in Baghdad, said the statement posted on the foreign ministry's website late Tuesday.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced last weekend that the talks are due to take place April 13 and 14 in Istanbul.

But EU diplomats cautioned that the venue was still under discussion, and Russia said on Monday that "the date and the place of the meeting have not been definitively set."

The negotiations are seen as an important opportunity to lower tensions over Iran's nuclear programme that have been coloured by threats from Israel and the United States of military action.

The last round of talks between Iran and the so-called P5+1 group was held in Istanbul in January 2011 and ended in failure. Geneva hosted the round before that in late 2010.

Washington and its allies believe Iran's nuclear activities include a drive towards atomic weapons capability and have imposed a raft of sanctions to punish Tehran.

Iran denies there is any military component to its programme and says it will not bow to sanctions pressure.

Iran's deputy nuclear negotiator Ali Baqeri, met Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Tuesday night, the ministry statement said, adding that Iran's ambassador to Baghdad also attended.

"The (Iraqi) foreign minister welcomed the Iranian proposal" for Baghdad to host the talks, it said.

Zebari expressed "the readiness of Iraq to host the meeting, and confirmed that he will undertake the necessary contacts with the relevant parties on the proposal," it said.

Iraq hosted a landmark Arab summit that brought together 10 heads of state in Baghdad on March 29, after two preceding days of ministerial talks.

Two attacks occurred in Baghdad despite heavy-handed security measures, but the meeting was hailed as a success by Iraqi leaders and observers.

As Israel voiced growing impatience over Iran, Clinton credited US sanctions with inflicting pressure on the Islamic republic but she warned of a tough road ahead as Tehran prepares to meet with six major powers.

"There is no clear path. We know that a nuclear-armed Iran would be incredibly destabilizing to the region and beyond. A conflict arising out of their program would also be very destabilizing," Clinton said.

"There is no way to balance this. You have two very difficult paths here," Clinton told a dinner in Norfolk, Virginia, where she was on a day trip to visit the only NATO command in the United States.

Clinton, who traveled over the weekend to Turkey and Saudi Arabia, voiced concern that a nuclear-armed Iran would trigger an arms race in the region.

"We're going to be looking for a way to try to convey the legitimate fears that people in the region have about what comes next. Because if Iran were ever to get a nuclear weapon, the countries in the region are going to buy their way to one as well," Clinton said.

Iran said last week that talks would open on April 13 with six powers -- Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- in the first such negotiations in more than one year.

But Russia said Monday that the date and venue have not been definitively set, leading the United States to say that Iran was sending mixed signals.

Clinton, who had earlier given April 13 as the date and Istanbul as the venue, said Tuesday only that the United States is "hoping that those talks will commence within the next several weeks."

"And we're hoping that there will be a path forward that gives the Iranians a reason to believe that it is in their national interest not to pursue their nuclear program," she said.

Clinton said the talks, in line with previous proposals, would offer Iran support for peaceful nuclear energy if the regime gives up highly enriched uranium and other work which critics say could be used to make a bomb.

Clinton, speaking earlier Tuesday at the Virginia Military Institute, said that the talks should not be "open-ended."

"We expect to see concrete commitments from Iran that it will come clean on its nuclear program and live up to its international obligations," Clinton said.

The United States has been threatening sanctions to press other countries to stop buying Iranian oil, the country's chief money-maker. Turkey said Friday that it was cutting oil imports from its neighbor by 20 percent.

But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Iran has not moved "even one millimeter" from its nuclear program despite its financial struggles.

"The sanctions are painful, hard," Netanyahu told reporters in Jerusalem. "But will this bring about a halt or a retreat in the Iranian nuclear program? Until now, it has not happened."

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Monday that the sanctions "may have caused us small problems but we will continue our path."

Iranian officials, however, say its nuclear work is for peaceful purposes. The latest US intelligence assessments have not concluded that the regime has given the go-ahead to develop a nuclear bomb.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in February that possession of a nuclear bomb "constitutes a major sin" for Iran, reiterating a fatwa -- or religious edict -- that he made in 2005.