GENEVA - The European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has held discussions with French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius Friday during the intensive talks between world powers and Iran, said her spokesman Michael Mann.

Fabius flew to Geneva Friday to join the talks between five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany and Iran over the latter’s controversial nuclear program.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, British Foreign Secretary William Hague, and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle are also making unscheduled trips to Geneva to join the talks, which has raised the hope that an interim deal will be made after the negotiations.“We are making progress in nuclear talks,” Mann said after the conclusion of the first-day talks. (Xinhua)