TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's foreign minister says Tehran will be ready to resume nuclear talks with world powers as soon as the country's president-elect puts together his negotiating team.

Wednesday's comments by Ali Akbar Salehi follow a meeting in Brussels with members of the six-member group that reopened talks with Iran last year.

EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said the group — the five permanent U.N. Security Council nations plus Germany — seeks to quickly resume negotiations, which have failed so far to make significant headway. No date has been proposed.

Iran's new president, Hasan Rouhani, himself a former top nuclear negotiator, is currently piecing together his government. He will be sworn-in early next month.

The West fears Iran may be seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, a charge Tehran denies.