Geneva, March 19 (IANS): Iran and the US have wrapped up the latest round of marathon talks in Switzerland to ink a comprehensive nuclear deal before the March 31 deadline.

On Wednesday night, two separate meetings were held in the lakeside city of Lausanne; one between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, his US counterpart John Kerry, and the European Union deputy foreign policy chief, Helga Schmid, and another between Head of the Atomic Energy Organisation of Iran (AEOI) Ali Akbar Salehi and US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, Press TV reported.

Zarif was accompanied by Deputy Foreign Ministers Abbas Araqchi and Majid Takht-e Ravanchi, and Hossein Fereydoun, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's special aide, while US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman joined Kerry during the talks.

Earlier in the day, Araqchi and Takht-e-Ravanchi held a meeting with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.

Meanwhile, Zarif said that it was yet unnecessary for foreign ministers from Germany, Britain, France, and China -- other members of the P5 1 group -- to join the talks at this point.

"I don't think their presence will be needed in this round," Zarif told reporters.
"When the solutions are found and we approach a deal, then all the foreign ministers of the negotiating parties should come," he said.

Iran and the P5 1 countries are seeking to seal a high-profile political deal by the end this month and to confirm the full technical details of the accord by July 1.

The two sides have already missed two self-imposed deadlines for inking a final agreement since they signed an interim one in the Swiss city of Geneva in November 2013.