Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that Iran has not dodged negotiation with the world's major powers.

"The West claims that Iran has dodged the negotiation path, but it is them that make excuses and escape the negotiations," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the Iranian presidential website.

Iran has logic and is in favor of negotiations, he said when addressing a group of people in southeastern city of Kerman on Thursday.

On Jan. 19, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said in Turkey's capital Ankara that "It is time for the talks to start if other parties are ready to act sincerely. If there were any excuses on their part, it would mean that they are against or do not endorse negotiations."

Nuclear talks between Iran and the G5+1 (the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany) in Istanbul in January 2011 failed to reach any agreement as Tehran rejected any notion of suspending enrichment in exchange for trade and technology benefits, as called for by several UN Security Council resolutions passed since 2006.