Tehran, Sep 17 (IANS): Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has announced that fresh round of talks between Iran and six major world powers over Tehran's nuclear energy programme will begin Wednesday.

"The first round of negotiations between Iran and G5 1 within the framework of the 7th Round of nuclear negotiations will start at the presence of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton this afternoon," IRNA quoted Zarif, who is in New York, as saying.

"Before the high-level meetings of the 69th Annual Meeting of the UN General Assembly, we will hold bilateral and multilateral meetings with representatives of the G5 1," the Iranian foreign minister added.

He noted that the first meeting will take place with Ashton and then the bilateral talks will continue.

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.