Larijani, who was seen as having a moderating influence on nuclear policy, stepped down following a prolonged disagreement with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the handling of Iran's position in the standoff.

His successor, deputy foreign minister Saeed Jalili, is a hardliner and a close confidant of the president, and is believed by analysts to share Ahmadinejad's unrelenting refusal of offering any concession to the West.

But foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini insisted the change in personnel did not herald any switch in policy.

"The resignation of Mr Larijani was agreed by the president but the policies and strategies of the Islamic republic on the nuclear issue are unchangeable goals," he told reporters.

Ahmadinejad's senior adviser Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi told state news agency IRNA: "With the replacement of individuals there is no change in the Islamic republic's nuclear policies."

Government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham, who announced the resignation on Saturday, said Larijani had already offered to quit "several times" -- a clear indication he was unhappy with Tehran's nuclear policy.

However Larijani will still join his successor for talks on Iran's nuclear programme with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana in Rome on Tuesday, Hosseini said.

Larijani is to remain on the council in his position as the representative of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Oddly, Hosseini declined to confirm that the Rome meeting would be Larijani's last.

"This is how we will attend for this meeting. For the future let us wait and see," he said.

The top nuclear negotiator -- whose official title is secretary of the Supreme National Security Council -- has the job of leading talks with the European Union and UN nuclear watchdog on Iran's nuclear case.

The change comes at an acutely sensitive time, with Western powers urging more UN sanctions action against Tehran and threatening unilateral measures of their own.

The United States and European allies accuse Tehran of seeking a nuclear bomb, a charge vehemently denied by Iran which insists that its atomic drive is solely aimed at generating energy.

The extent or content of the disagreement between Larijani and Ahmadinejad was never made public, although it was an open secret in Tehran that the two did not see eye-to-eye.

While Larijani is a conservative and regime insider, his wordy and sometimes moderate rhetoric contrasted markedly with the provocative broadsides against the West issued by the president.

Western analysts said that Jalili -- author of a book entitled "The Foreign Policy of the Prophet" -- was likely to take a harder line in nuclear negotiations.

"I think it makes it harder to strike a deal, because there is nobody to negotiate with who has some pragmatic inclination," said Mark Fitzpatrick, director of the Non-Proliferation Programme at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

"With Larijani out of the picture there is nobody to talk to, and it indicates that the supreme leader is not in a mood for a compromise either."

A Western diplomat, who asked not to be named, said that Jalili has a "stubborn personality" and was in the habit "of giving interminable sermons during talks."

Not everyone in Iran was enthusiastic about the new appointment.

The influential head of parliament's research centre, Ahmad Tavakoli, said: "The experience and positions held by Larijani are not comparable with the deputy foreign minister, who has little experience."

The reformist Etemad Melli newspaper warned that with the negotiating team now entirely controlled by those close to Ahmadinejad, "the president and his allies are perfectly aware of the price of such a decision."

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