Saeed Jalili has taken over from Ali Larijani, who held the post for over two years but resigned on Saturday after falling out with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad over the handling of Iran's nuclear case.

"It was no longer possible for Larijani to continue with Ahmadinejad," the deputy speaker of parliament Mohammad Reza Bahonar said, in the first official explanation of his sudden resignation.

However, Larijani will still attend the talks in Rome alongside his successor as secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, officials said, a move that has puzzled observers.

Larijani is still holding on to his seat on the Supreme National Security Council as the representative of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It is in this capacity he will attend the talks.

Adding to the intrigue, the top foreign policy advisor of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all foreign policy matters, said it would have been better if Larijani had stayed in his post.

"In the very important and sensitive situation where the nuclear issue is at the moment it would be better if this (the resignation) did not happen or at least it was prevented," said Ali Akbar Velayati.

It is not clear whether Khamenei approved the resignation, which Larijani had already offered on several previous occasions.

Larijani and Solana met several times in European capitals over the past year but failed to make any headway in the key sticking point in the dispute -- Tehran's insistence it carries on enriching uranium.

The meeting will be the first chance for Solana to meet Jalili, who is seen as an Ahmadinejad loyalist who will defend his president's hardline stance on the nuclear issue.

"We hope that Mr Jalili will be able to give Mr Solana responses on each of the points," said French foreign ministry deputy spokesman Frederic Desagneaux.

But there was little hope that the two would make major progress, with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki insisting that Tehran would never yield despite the threats of further sanctions.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran... will not allow its rights to be trampled on," Mottaki said in a letter of protest to France which has backed unilateral EU measures against Tehran.

The United States and Western powers fear that uranium enrichment could be used by Tehran to make a nuclear weapon but Iran insists it only wants to generate energy and has every right to the full nuclear fuel cycle.

Despite two sets of UN sanctions, Ahmadinejad and Khamenei have refused to budge an inch.

Larijani was believed to support a more moderate line in the nuclear standoff -- at least over the presentation of policy -- although how far this went is still unclear.

"Larijani was not soft but he was more in favour of negotiating than the others," said a Brussels-based diplomat, who asked not to be named.

The United States, increasingly frustrated by the slow pace of diplomatic action, has never ruled out the possibility of military action and hawkish Vice President Dick Cheney warned of "serious consequences" against Tehran.

"The United States joins other nations in sending a clear message: We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon," he said, without specifically referring to military action.

However UN nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei denied that Iran reprsented a "clear and present danger", in an interview with the Le Monde newspaper.

"I can't judge whether Iran intends to develop a nuclear bomb. It would need between three and eight years to do so. All intelligence services are agreed on that," said ElBaradei.

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