BAGHDAD  - Iran has the "absolute right" to uranium enrichment, Tehran's chief negotiator at talks in Baghdad with world powers, Saeed Jalili, said on Thursday.Peaceful nuclear energy and uranium enrichment are our "absolute right," Jalili told a news conference.Enrichment can be used for peaceful purposes but also to build a nuclear weapon. It is the international community's main concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions.World powers involved in the talks with Iran are focused on having Tehran suspend its production of uranium enriched to 20 percent and for it to send its existing 20-percent stockpile out of the country in a swap for reactor fuel. But Jalili signalled that all signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including Iran, had a right to enrichment. "We insist on the right of having a peaceful nuclear energy cycle and enrichment. This is the inalienable right of the Iranian nation," the negotiator said."This is a peaceful activity under the supervision of the IAEA, and it is the inalienable right of Iran and they (the P5+1 group of world powers) confirmed this in the meeting," he said.He added, however, that "it can be an issue of discussion for cooperation.""Iran declared its readiness to address the issue of 20-percent enrichment and came with its own five-point plan, including their assertion that we recognise their right to enrichment," the P5+1's representative, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told a separate news conference prior to Jalili.Meanwhile, Iran and six world powers closed two days of tough nuclear talks Thursday with little to show except an agreement to meet again next month in Moscow after sharp disagreements over the way forward."We have met with our Iranian counterparts over the last two days in very intense and detailed discussions," said EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, representing six world powers at the talks in Baghdad. She added that it was "clear that we both want to make progress, and that there is some common ground. However, significant differences remain." The parties would meet again in Moscow on June 18-19, Ashton announced.On Wednesday, Ashton had on behalf of the P5+1 - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany - laid out a new package of proposals that appeared to alarm the Iranians.These included Iran suspending enrichment of uranium to 20-percent purities - for the P5+1, the most worrying part of Tehran's activity and the crunch issue.The capability to enrich to 20 percent takes Iran significantly closer to being able to produce weapons-grade 90 percent, if it took the decision to build a nuclear bomb, by shortening the so-called "breakout" time.But the P5+1 offer, made on the group's behalf by Ashton, went down badly with Tehran since in return it did not offer the relief from crippling sanctions which Iran wants.Ashton said in her closing news conference that Iran had "declared its readiness to address 20-percent enrichment" but she did not elaborate.She made no mention of sanctions.Iran's negotiator, however, insisted Tehran has the "absolute right" to uranium enrichment.An Iranian official had said Wednesday that the P5+1 offer even put into doubt whether there was enough common ground to hold more in-depth talks on core issues, which was the main objective.Iranian media had said the chances of talks going into another round were "very low," with several outlets saying Iran had essentially been handed Israeli demands.The P5+1 reportedly proposed a pledge not to impose any new sanctions, as well as easing Iranian access to aircraft parts and a possible suspension of an EU insurance ban on ships carrying Iranian oil.The proposals also reportedly included a revival of previous attempts to have Iran ship abroad its stockpiles of enriched uranium in return for fuel for a reactor producing medical isotopes.But Iran announced on Tuesday that it was loading domestically produced, 20-percent enriched uranium fuel into the reactor, and the Iranian official in Baghdad was dismissive of reviving the idea of a swap."There have been some areas of common ground and there has been a fair amount of disagreement," said a senior US official late Wednesday, portraying this as a sign that the negotiations at least were as serious as hoped."We have engaged in a lot of back and forth. Some of that has been difficult, but any negotiation that is worth its salt is difficult because you are getting down to the issues that matter."We are the beginning of this process. We are not in the middle of it and we are certainly not at the end of it."Another diplomat said on Thursday that there was "clear distance between our positions. But that's what negotiations are for. At least both are getting a clearer sense of where the other side is."On Wednesday, Iran made a five-step counter-proposal that an official said was "based on the principles of step-by-step and reciprocity" and that Iran's ISNA news agency called "comprehensive ... transparent and practical".The Baghdad talks were always going to be tough, as to make progress the two sides would have to tackle some of the thorny issues that have divided them - and the P5+1 themselves - for years.The cost of the talks failing could barely be higher.Iran is threatened with an EU oil embargo due to take full effect from July 1 that will also bar EU firms from insuring crude tankers heading to India, South Korea and Japan.Israel, which is widely considered to have the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear arsenal, sees itself as Tehran's number-one target if Iran acquires the bomb and is highly sceptical diplomacy can help it.Like the United States, it has refused to rule out military strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent it developing a weapons capability.Oil prices have risen higher as a result, hurting global growth just as the eurozone crisis threatens to return with a vengeance and as US President Barack Obama seeks re-election in November on the back of an improving economy.Obama, who campaigned in 2008 for his first term promising to reach out to Tehran, is also wary of his Iran policy being branded as soft and a failure by his Republican challenger Mitt Romney.