"The draft joint document suited the Iranian side. But since decisions at negotiations are taken by consensus, it was not possible to make a final deal," a foreign ministry source said in comments carried by all Russia's main news agencies on Tuesday.

"And this was not the fault of the Iranians," it added.

The source rejected the interpretation of US Secretary of State John Kerry who said that the six world powers known as the P5 1 were unified at the talks and it was the Iranians who could not take the proposal.

"Such an interpretation simplifies to an extreme and even distorts what happened in Geneva," said the source.

The talks involving Iran and the P5+1 group -- Britain, France, the United States, Russia and China plus Germany -- ended inconclusively early on Sunday. They will resume in Geneva on November 20.

The US and some of its allies used the false allegation as a pretext to push the UN Security Council to impose four rounds of sanctions on the Islamic Republic between 2006 and 2010.

Tehran has categorically rejected the accusation, arguing that as a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it is entitled to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.

NTJ/BA