Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Thursday he was ready to travel to Europe for talks on Tehran's nuclear programme, with France indicating European powers were also ready for dialogue if Tehran showed it was seriously engaged.

Iran is looking to build on the momentum of nuclear negotiations with the United States that resume in Oman on Saturday and after talks with Russia and China earlier this week. Its reach out to the European powers that are party to a 2015 nuclear deal suggests Tehran is keeping its options open.

Since September, Tehran and the three European powers, known as the E3, have already held several rounds of discussions over their ties and the nuclear issue.

The most recent in March were held at the technical level, looking at the parameters of a future deal to secure a rollback of the nuclear programme in return for the lifting of sanctions.

European diplomats had said they were seeking a new meeting with Iran, although that appeared on ice when Tehran began indirect talks on its nuclear programme with U.S. President Donald Trump's administration earlier this month.

Trump, who abandoned the 2015 pact between Tehran and world powers during his first term in 2018, has threatened to attack Iran unless it reaches a new deal swiftly that would prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

"The only solution is a diplomatic solution and Iran must resolutely engage in this path and it's a proposal the E3 have put forward many times, so we will continue dialogue with the Iranians," he told a news conference.

The United States did not tell European countries about the nuclear talks in Oman before Trump announced them, even though they hold a key card on the possible reimposition of U.N. sanctions on Tehran.

However, according to two European diplomats, the U.S. lead technical negotiator Michael Anton briefed E3 diplomats in Paris on April 17, suggesting that coordination has improved.

Anton would head the technical delegation at talks in Oman on Saturday, which special envoy Steve Witkoff would also attend, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce told reporters at a regular news briefing on Thursday.