Michael Mann, spokesman of European Union's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, said Wednesday that the world powers submitted a proposal to Iran to reduce uranium enrichment during Baghdad nuclear talks.

Mann told reporters in Baghdad on the sidelines of the nuclear meeting between Iran and the world six major powers in addition to EU that "we have presented a proposal to Iran stating that Iran should reduce its uranium enrichment from 20 percent to 5 percent in return for easing sanctions."

The nuclear talks between Iran and the UN Security Council's five permanent members (the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China) plus Germany, known as P5+1, in addition to EU started in Baghdad on Wednesday afternoon at one of the palaces in the presidential complex in the heavily fortified Green Zone in central Baghdad that houses the Iraqi government offices and some foreign embassies, including the U.S. embassy.

Wednesday's talks aim at pushing Iran to allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts access to sites, people and documents the agency hopes to inspect to address concerns that the country might have been working on nuclear weapons.

For its part, Iraq hopes that hosting such a significant international meeting is another signal to the world after hosting the Arab League summit in late March, to confirm the country's emergence from isolation after wars and unrest.

The UN has by now imposed several rounds of sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to halt uranium enrichment, a technology that can be used to produce nuclear fuel or materials for bombs.

The EU, the United States and some other countries have imposed oil embargo as part of their sanctions to pressure Tehran into resuming talks on the country's nuclear program. They have also imposed tough banking sanctions aiming at limiting Iran's ability to sell oil, which accounts for 80 percent of its foreign revenues.