Kerry, Zarif to meet for nuclear talks as deadline looms

US Secretary of State John Kerry was set to arrive in Geneva Feb. 22 for renewed talks with his Iranian counterpart on Tehran's nuclear programme, after warning "significant gaps" remain ahead of a key deadline.
      
World powers are trying to strike a deal with Iran that would prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear bomb in return for an easing of punishing international economic sanctions.
      
Kerry is set to arrive in the Swiss city Sunday morning for two days of talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, whose country denies its nuclear programme has military objectives.
      
"There are still significant gaps, there is still a distance to travel," Kerry said in London on Saturday.
      
There is a heightened sense of urgency as the clock ticks down towards a March 31 deadline to agree on a political framework for the deal.
      
"President (Barack) Obama has no inclination whatsoever to extend these talks beyond the period that has been set out," Kerry said.
      
US and Iranian diplomats have been meeting in Geneva since Friday, and senior negotiators from the so-called P5+1 group of Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States and Germany were also expected to meet on Sunday to help drive the talks forward.
                      
Kerry stressed Saturday that there was "absolutely no divergence whatsoever in what we (the P5+1) believe is necessary for Iran to prove that its nuclear program is going to be peaceful."       

As a sign that efforts were intensifying, US Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz flew in to snow-covered Geneva Saturday to take part in the talks for the first time.
      
Ali Akbar Salehi, the director of the Iranian Atomic Energy...