"If they do not sit down and talk, we will be in a worse-off situation this time next year. Time is working against a solution," foreign ministry spokesman Burak Ozugergin told a press conference here.

"President Ahmadinejad alluded to the month of August (for the talks). We wish they would take place sooner," Ozugergin said.

On Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ruled out talks with the P5+1 world powers -- Britain, France, Russia, China, the United States and Germany -- on Tehran's uranium enrichment programme until the end of the Iranian month of Mordad, around late August.

The Iranian leader described the freeze as a "penalty" in retaliation for a fourth round of sanctions that the UN Security Council slapped on Iran for refusing to halt its uranium enrichment work.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Tuesday that the freeze did not apply to discussions on a nuclear fuel swap deal brokered by Turkey and Brazil in May.

Ozugergin described the fuel deal as an "important confidence-building measure" and said it was still on the table.

"We would like this deal to be implemented and for negotiations to be held to resolve outstanding issues" in order to secure a peaceful settlement to the dispute over Tehran's nuclear programme, he added.

Under the May deal, Iran agreed to send 1,200 kilogrammes (2,640 pounds) of its low-enriched uranium to Turkey. In return, the Islamic republic would be supplied with higher grade fuel from Russia and France for a research reactor.

However, it was cold-shouldered by the United States and other world powers, on the grounds that it did not go far enough to allay fears that Tehran is using its atomic drive as a cover for a nuclear weapons programme.

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