(Updates with European Union comment starting in third paragraph.)

Dec. 31 (Bloomberg) -- Iran’s top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili plans to submit a letter to European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to restart talks on the country’s nuclear program, Mehr news agency reported today, citing Iran’s ambassador to Germany.

A new round of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany may follow, Alireza Sheikh Attar told the state-run news agency.

Michael Mann, a spokesman for Ashton, said today that she hadn’t received a response to a letter sent to Jalili in October.

The EU continues to pursue a “twin-track approach” and is “open for meaningful discussions on confidence-building measures, without preconditions from the Iranian side,” Mann said in an e-mailed response to questions.

Iran is facing new Western efforts to halt its suspected nuclear weapons program, including U.S. sanctions that are awaiting President Barack Obama’s signature and a possible European Union ban on imports of oil from Iran, the world’s third-largest oil exporter. Iran denies seeking to develop atomic weapons.

--Editors: Shaji Mathew, Patrick G. Henry

To contact the reporter on this story: Ayesha Daya at adaya1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephen Voss at sev@bloomberg.net