By Louis Charbonneau and Parisa Hafezi
VIENNA (Reuters) - A deadline for resolving a 12-year-old dispute over Iran's nuclear program may be extended from Monday until March, because of sharp disagreements between Tehran and Western powers, officials close to the talks said on Thursday.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will arrive in Vienna later for what Washington and its allies had hoped would be the culmination of months of difficult diplomacy between Iran and the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China.
The aim is to remove sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its atomic program, but the talks have long been deadlocked: the timing for lifting sanctions and future scope of Iran's uranium enrichment are key stumbling blocks.
The U.N. nuclear chief Yukiya Amano on Thursday highlighted another hurdle: Iran has yet to explain suspected atomic bomb research to the U.N. nuclear agency, one of the conditions of the six powers for lifting sanctions.
"Important points of difference remain," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told a joint news conference with Kerry, who met him in Paris on his way to Vienna later on Thursday.
The latest round of talks between the six began on Tuesday and are likely to last right up to the self-imposed Nov 24 deadline for a final agreement.
"Some kind of interim agreement at this point is likely, or perhaps at best a framework agreement by Monday that needs to be worked out in the coming weeks and months," a Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken said this week a comprehensive deal would be difficult, but not impossible to achieve by Monday. British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said he was not optimistic but that there may be a way of extending the deadline.
A senior Iranian official had similar expectations.
"We need more time to resolve technical issues and don't forget that the time frame for lifting sanctions is still a huge dispute," the Iranian official said, adding that an extension until March was a possibility. Western officials also suggested March was an option, with a resumption of talks in January.
The officials said, however, that Iran and the six were not actively discussing an extension yet and would push for a deal by the deadline, which has already been extended from July.
Officials close to the negotiations, which began in February, say that Iran wants all key sanctions on oil exports and banking terminated almost immediately, not merely suspended as the United States and European officials have said.
Tehran rejects Western allegations it is amassing the capability to produce atomic weapons and has refused to halt its enrichment program.
It has been under international sanctions for eight years and the U.S., European Union and U.N. measures have crippled its economy by slashing its oil exports and causing inflation to soar and the value of its currency to plummet.
TIMING
Western powers say the sanctions can be suspended gradually and in line with moves by Iran to restrain its nuclear activities and terminated only after Tehran has demonstrated full compliance with the terms of any deal.
There is also a dispute over the duration of any deal, with Western powers wanting Iranian restrictions to last for 20 years and Iranians pushing for either months or a small number of years, diplomats say.
There is also a blame game developing about who is responsible for the deadlock in the nuclear talks.
Western officials say Iran also refused to budge on enrichment, despite repeated offers of potential compromises by the six powers, including the United States.
Tehran is willing to consider keeping fewer enrichment centrifuges as long as they are advanced, to keep the volume unchanged, Western officials say, adding that this represents no compromise at all.
Western officials say the West is willing to compromise but Iran is not largely because Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not given the negotiators the freedom to make real compromises in the talks.
"The ball is in the Iranian camp and to be honest we have a feeling that we're treading water at the moment," a senior Western diplomat said. "The main obstacle is that the decisions have to be made by the Iranian leadership."
The Iranians, however, pin the blame on Western powers, which they accuse of expecting too much from Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Tuesday that Iran would resist Western pressure to make what it considered to be excessive concessions in the Vienna talks.
(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Vienna and Jonathan Allen and John Irish in Paris; editing by Philippa Fletcher)