Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy met Wednesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki at the Elysee Palace in Paris to discuss Teheran's nuclear program and a variety of regional issues.

France belongs to the so-called E3+3 group - with Britain and Germany, plus the United States, Russia, and China - which has been trying to convince Iran to give up its program of uranium enrichment, a key stage in developing a nuclear weapon.

Most Western powers and Israel believe that Iran wants to develop nuclear arms.

The meeting with Mottaki, at which French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner is also taking part, is Sarkozy's first with a senior Iranian official since he took office in May
2007.

Sarkozy refuses to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad because of his open hostility to Israel. The Iranian leader has on several occasions said that Israel should be "erased" from the map.

Last month, Sarkozy inaugurated a French military base in Abu Dhabi, just across the Strait of Hormuz from Iran.(dpa)