Ali Larijani, Iran's nuclear negotiator, is to meet the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to discuss a proposed time-out plan.
Larijani will meet Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA director, in Vienna on Tuesday, the IRNA news agency said.
ElBaradei has asked that Iran suspend nuclear work in return for a hold on UN sanctions.
The meeting comes ahead of the expiry on February 21 of a UN Security Council deadline for Iran to halt sensitive uranium enrichment work.
An IAEA report on Iranian compliance with the UN deadline is due to be released on Friday.
Iran has refused to meet Western demands that it suspend uranium enrichment, a process that the West fears could be used to make nuclear weapons.
Iran insists that its nuclear-enrichment programme is solely for power generation.
Larijani and other Iranian officials have suggested that Iran place a formal limit on the degree of its enrichment as a guarantee that it is not developing an atomic weapon.
The meeting between Larijani and ElBaradei, their first this year, comes just over a week after Larijani met Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief.
On Monday, the IAEA would not confirm or deny that a meeting between ElBaradei and Larijani was scheduled for Tuesday.
Agencies
Publication time: 20 February 2007, 16:46
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