Obama spurs iran hopes

A panel of former top international officials voiced hope at a Moscow fo­rum on Tuesday for progress in settling the Iranian nuclear standoff after President-elect Barack Obama takes office.

Hans Blix, former head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, said he expected the new U.S. administra­tion to take a fresh approach to the deadlocked international talks on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"I hope that the Obama administra­tion in the United States will be more imaginative" on the issue than its predecessors, Blix said after a session of the Luxembourg Forum on Preventing Nuclear Catastrophe.

Former Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov also said he expected the change of administration in Washington to play a positive role in the Iranian nuclear dispute.

"The new administration coming to power in the United States could breathe a new life into the negotiation process," Ivanov told reporters.