U.S., German leaders urge Iran to resolve "remaining issues" over nuke talks

With a deadline nearing for a framework deal by this month's end, U.S. President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday urged Iran to make decisions needed to resolve "several remaining issues" over the ongoing nuclear talks.

In their conversation over the phone, the two leaders reaffirmed their commitment to achieving "a long-term comprehensive deal that fully and verifiably ensures that Iran's nuclear program is exclusively peaceful going forward," the White House said in a statement.

They stressed that "Iran must make the decisions necessary to resolve several remaining issues," the statement said.

A new round of nuclear talks began Thursday in the Swiss city of Lausanne, with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarif back at the negotiating table.

The talks were suspended last Friday for the Iranians to celebrate their new year. A senior official from the U.S. State Department told reporters Wednesday that greater progress had been made in the last round of talks than the previous ones.

"We are focused on getting a political framework that addresses all of the major elements of a comprehensive deal done by the end of March," the official said, declining to be identified.

Foreign ministers from Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia, the other countries that are jointly pursuing nuclear talks with Iran, are expected to join in later in the week.

On Thursday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke to British, French and Russian leaders and wrote to Obama about the talks regarding his country's controversial nuclear program.

Washington and its Western allies suspect Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, while the Islamic republic insists its nuclear program is solely for power generation and medical purposes. Endite