Iranian Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said Wednesday that the next round of nuclear talks between Iran and world's major powers will be held on April 13 but the venue has not been decided yet, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The venue for the talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany (G5+1) will be decided in a few days, Salehi made the remarks upon receiving Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan who arrived in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Wednesday morning.

"Istanbul has already announced readiness to host the (upcoming nuclear) talks and it is one of the possible options for the talks, " Salehi told IRNA, adding that "in my opinion, Istanbul is the preferable host for the talks, but the issue will be decided by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili."

"Mrs. Catherine Ashton, European Union (EU) Foreign Policy Chief, has contacted our Turkish friends about the venue of the upcoming talks between Iran and G5+1 and Mr. Jalili and his colleagues are studying the issue. We hope the venue of the talks will be decided in the coming days," he was quoted as saying.

On Wednesday, Turkish Ambassador to Tehran Umit Yardim told IRNA that Turkey is ready to host upcoming Iran-G5+1 talks for the second time.

Nuclear talks between Iran and the G5+1 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.

Heading a high-ranking politico-economic delegation, the Turkish prime minister, who participated in Seoul Nuclear Security Summit recently, arrived in Tehran on Wednesday for talks.

During his two-day visit, he is scheduled to hold talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian First Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi and Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani on bilateral ties, recent developments in the Middle East and Iran's controversial nuclear program, said IRNA.

On Wednesday, Salehi said that "Before talking on (Iran's) nuclear issue with Mr. Erdogan, we will discuss other issues including our bilateral relations ... boosting the ties especially in trade and economic sectors," according to IRNA.

The annual trade value between Iran and Turkey stands currently at 16 billion U.S. dollars, "but, due to the potentials and capacity on the both side to upgrade the ties, the figure can reach 30 billion dollars in the next years," the Iranian foreign minister was quoted as saying.

Turkey has remained one of the major trade partners of Iran in the past decades and has been one of the main energy importers from the Islamic republic despite the U.S. pressures on its allies to reduce oil transaction with the country.

In the past years, amid the Israeli threats to launch military attack on Iran's nuclear establishments, the Turkish officials have reiterated their resolution to settle Iran's nuclear disputes through dialogue and have played an active role in this regard.

However, Iran's failure to give in to the Western pressures to halt its nuclear enrichment program has created an impasse in the international efforts which are aimed at resolving Iran's nuclear issue peacefully.

Iran has been under successive economic and financial sanction pressures by the UN Security Council and the Western countries in the past years.

The United States and the European Union have targeted Iran's central bank and oil exports for expanded sanctions in their continued efforts to press the country to stop its uranium enrichment activities.

The United States and its Western allies suspected Iran of trying to acquire nuclear weapons through its controversial nuclear program, which Tehran insists is for "civilian purposes" only.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Treasury Department announced it would slap fresh sanctions on an Iranian airline, a trading company and three military officials for their alleged involvement in arms exports.

The department said in a statement the sanctions were targeted at Yas Air, a Tehran-based cargo airline, and a trading company named Behineh Trading. The three Iranian Islamic Revolution Guards Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officials are Esmail Ghani, Sayyid Tabatabaei and Hosein Aghajani.

The U.S. department accused the airline, the trading company and the officials of being involved in shipments of weapons to the Levant, including Syria, and Africa, saying it further demonstrated "Iran's determination to evade international sanctions."

Local experts believe that under tightening sanctions imposed by the West, Iran is likely to make some concessions in the upcoming nuclear talks.

Recently, and after about more than one-year-long deadlock over the talks on Iran's suspected nuclear program, Tehran in mid- February replied to Ashton's October letter over the resumption of nuclear talks.

Ashton later responded to Iran's proposal, saying that the G5+1 agreed to restart nuclear talks with Iran.

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