Tehran, Sep 16 (IANS): Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Tuesday left for New York to attend a fresh round of negotiations with six major world powers over Tehran’s nuclear energy programme.

Zarif is expected to meet EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton Wednesday, Press TV reported.

Bilateral meetings are also planned to be held between Iran and the members of the P5 1 group or the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the US, Russia, China, France and Britain - plus Germany.

The seventh round of talks between Iran and the P5 1, which aims to narrow the remaining gaps and finalise a nuclear deal between the two sides, will officially begin Thursday.

The new round of negotiations will be held on the sidelines of the 69th Session of the UN General Assembly and Zarif is scheduled to attend the session too.

Last week, senior Iranian negotiator Majid Takht-e-Ravanchi said that Tehran and the six world powers remained divided over key issues in the nuclear negotiations.

Last November, Tehran and the P5 1 signed an interim deal in Geneva, which came into effect Jan 20 and expired six months later.

In July, Iran and the six countries agreed to extend negotiations until Nov 24 after they failed to reach common ground on a number of key issues.