Iran to curb nuclear activity

Iran has agreed to curb some of its nuclear activities in return for about $7 billion - or €5.17 billion - in sanctions relief, after days of intense talks in Geneva.

Iran agreed to give better access to inspectors and halt some of its work on uranium enrichment but negotiators from the country insisted that they still had a right to nuclear power.

The deal comes just months after Iran elected Hassan Rouhani - regarded as a relative moderate - as its new president, in place of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

 Rouhani said the deal would "open up new horizons".

After four days of negotiations, representatives of the so-called P5+1 group of nations - the US, the UK, Russia, China, France and Germany - reached an agreement with Iran in the early hours of Sunday.

US President Barack Obama welcomed the deal, saying it included "substantial limitations which will help prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon" whilst the Secretary of State John Kerry said the agreement would make the region safer for its allies, including Israel.

The Israeli government, however, criticised the deal and said Israel did not feel bound by it.

"This is a bad agreement that gives Iran what it wanted: the partial lifting of sanctions while maintaining an essential part of its nuclear programme," said a statement issued by the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli comments came as it was revealed that the US and Iran had held a series of face-to-face talks over the past year that were kept secret even from their allies.

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said it was an opportunity for the "removal of any doubts about the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programme" but he insisted that Iran had not given up its right to enrich uranium.

"We believe that the current agreement, the current plan of action as we call it, in two distinct places has a very clear reference to the fact that Iranian enrichment programme will continue and will be a part of any agreement, now and in the future," he said.