Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (P5+1) are set to begin an expert-level round of talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Iran and the P5+1 - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany - agreed to hold the expert-level meeting during their negotiations in the Russian capital of Moscow.

The Moscow meetings came after three sessions of plenary talks in Baghdad in May and an earlier round of negotiations in the Turkish city of Istanbul in mid-April.

The two sides had previously held two rounds of talks, one in Geneva, Switzerland, in December 2010, and another in Istanbul in January 2011.

According to a EU statement, the expert-level meeting is aimed at providing further clarification of the P5+1 proposal, increasing the P5+1 understanding of the Iranian package of proposals given in Moscow, and studying the issues raised by Iran during the sessions.

"We hope Iran will seize the opportunity of this meeting to show a willingness to take concrete steps to urgently meet the concerns of the international community, to build confidence in the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program and to meet its international obligations," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said earlier.

Washington and some of its allies claim that Iran's nuclear energy program includes a military component.

Iran has strongly refuted the allegations, arguing that as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has every right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.(Press TV)