UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Saturday won Iranian support for UN efforts to bring peace to Lebanon's border with Israel and held "constructive" talks on Tehran's nuclear programme.
Annan, on a two-day visit to Tehran, met Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and national security chief Ali Larijani, who told him Tehran was prepared to negotiate over its nuclear programme but without preconditions.
Mottaki, whose country is one of the main backers of the Hezbollah militant group that fought Israel for over a month in Lebanon, said Tehran supported UN efforts to bring peace as it deployed thousands more troops in the region.
"Iran has supported the Lebanese consensus on the resolution (UN resolution 1701 that ended the fighting) and the United Nations can consolidate the creation of peace on the border," Mottaki said according to the semi-official Mehr news agency.
However Mottaki also warned that any attempt to change the mission of the expanded United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) "would create tension".
Larijani said after the talks that "both parties agreed that the best solution is to solve the questions through negotiations," according to Mehr.