President: Iran ready for fair talks with U.S.

Iran's parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani who had participated at the three-day Munich Security Conference, which opened on Friday afternoon, told Iran's IRNA news agency that the U.S. needs a change of strategy to facilitate the direct talks with Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivers a speech in a rally to mark the 30th anniversary of the victory of Iran's Islamic Revolution in Tehran, capital of Iran, Feb. 10, 2009. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that Iran was ready for "fair talks" with the United States. (Xinhua Photo)

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday that his administration is "looking for openings" to start face-to-face talks with Iran.

There is a possibility of mutual respect between the United States and Iran, Obama told a press conference, the first of its kind since his inauguration on Jan. 20.

"My expectation is, in the coming months, we will be looking for openings that can be created where we can start sitting across the table, face-to-face diplomatic overtures, that will allow us to move our policy in a new direction.

Noting that there's been a lot of mistrust between Washington and Tehran over the decades, Obama said that "there are going to be a set of objectives that we have in these conversations, but I think that there's the possibility at least of a relationship of mutual respect and progress."

Washington has been trying to beef up the UN-passed as well as its own sanctions against Tehran for being involved in anti-U.S. coalition forces activities, and for allegedly developing nuclear weapons secretly.

Iran has denied the charges and insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.