TEHRAN: Iran's nuclear body said it held "constructive" talks on Tuesday with the visiting head of the International Atomic Energy Agency amid tensions over a US bid to reimpose UN sanctions. The trip is Rafael Mariano Grossi's first to the Islamic republic since the Argentine took the helm of the Vienna-based UN agency last year.

It comes more than two years after US President Donald Trump pulled out of a 2015 landmark international agreement that put curbs on Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief. Grossi first met with the head of Iran's atomic agency, Ali Akbar Salehi, and later held talks with Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

"A new chapter has started with this visit," Salehi said after their meeting, quoted by state news agency IRNA. "Today's talks were constructive," he added. "It was decided that the agency continue its work professionally and independently and Iran, too, act in the framework of its commitments."

Salehi said Iran's "enemies will not rest" but noted that Tehran has "so far been able to manage the issue". Access to the two disputed sites has been blocked for months, prompting a diplomatic row. Iran has argued that the IAEA's access requests are based on allegations from the country's arch-enemy Israel and have no legal basis.

The two sides were working on a statement which would be announced "in due time", Salehi added. Grossi tweeted later that the two sides were working on "reaching an agreement on IAEA's safegaurds verification activities in Iran."

In a statement before the talks, the nuclear body had said Iran expects the IAEA to "maintain neutrality in any situation and refrain from entering international political games."

Aside from meeting Grossi, Zarif also spoke by phone on Tuesday to his French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, according to the French foreign ministry.