Iran and the big powers opposed to its nuclear programme appeared to make progress on Thursday in talks that included the highest-level direct discussions with the US in many years, with both sides agreeing to hold further negotiations and the Iranians pledging to allow foreign inspectors into a newly disclosed uranium enrichment factory.

The talks, held in Geneva, defused some of the tensions that have escalated rapidly in recent weeks over Iran’s nuclear intentions and represented a victory of sorts for the Iranian government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose own legitimacy has not been universally recognised since his disputed re-election in June.

The tone of the discussions, at least, was considerably more positive than just a week ago, when the US and its European allies were threatening Iran with tough new sanctions if it refused to halt its uranium enrichment programme, which they suspect is meant for creating atomic weapons.

Javier Solana, the European Union’s foreign policy chief and the meeting’s host, said that Iran had pledged to “cooperate fully and immediately” with the international atomic energy agency, the IAEA, in allowing inspectors into its new facility hidden in a Qum mountainside, and Saeed Jalili, Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, called the discussions “good talks that will be a framework for better talks”.

Hillary Rodham Clinton, the US Secretary of State, struck a somewhat more cautious tone. “It was a productive day but the proof of that has not yet come to fruition, so we’ll wait and continue to press our point of view and see what Iran decides to do,” she said.

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