BRUSSELS: Iran must respond to a letter from the European Union before nuclear talks can resume, an EU spokesman said Tuesday, dismissing a call by Tehran for the EU to set a new date for negotiations.

"They are getting things the wrong way around," Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told AFP. "First things first. They must first respond to the letter and then we'll take it from there."

Ashton, who represents six world powers in the talks, has yet to receive a response since she sent a letter to Iranian nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in October offering to resume negotiations but without preconditions.

"We wrote to them saying in broad terms, if you want to show that your nuclear program is peaceful, then we are happy to listen to that and that will involve discussions," Mann said.

"If their response is meaningful, then we will take it from there," he said.

An Iranian foreign ministry spokesman said Tehran was waiting for Ashton to set a date and venue to resume talks with the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.