New Kerry, Zarif meeting in Iran nuclear talks: US

Vienna (AFP) - US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Vienna on Saturday afternoon, their first direct talks of the day, a US official said, two days ahead of the deadline for a nuclear deal.

"Secretary Kerry will meet with (former EU foreign policy chief Catherine) Ashton and Foreign Minister Zarif this afternoon," the official said.

Kerry said meanwhile as he met German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that there were still "serious gaps" in the nuclear negotiations, two days before a deadline for a deal.

"We're working hard," Kerry said, "and we hope we're making careful progress, but we have big gaps, we still have some serious gaps, which we?re working to close."

He added he would "not say anything substantive about the discussions while they're going on, but a lot of serious work is going on by a lot of people."