Tehran – Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei opposes holding direct negotiations with the United States, newspapers on Monday quoted a senior lawmaker as saying.

But Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said talks on the nuclear issue would continue within the framework of Tehran's contacts with six world powers, including the United States.

"Presently we do not have any new issue for talks," Mottaki said, the semi-official Fars News Agency reported.

The comments by vice speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar appeared to be in contradiction of discussions on Tehran's disputed nuclear program that took place in Switzerland earlier this month and that included officials from the two old foes.

But he may have been referring to any wide-ranging bilateral talks aimed at normalizing U.S.-Iran ties, rather than ruling out all contact between Tehran and Washington.

Relations with the United States are a sensitive issue in the Islamic Republic, whose clerical leaders see Washington as the Great Satan guilty of "global arrogance."

"Presently, the Supreme National Security Council and the Supreme Leader emphasize that our strategic policies are based on the absence of negotiations with the United States," Hambastegi newspaper quoted Bahonar as saying.