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May 16, 2014 - Video cameras stand in front of flags of the EU and Iran and a poster of the Iran talks where closed-door nuclear talks take place at the International Center in Vienna, Austria. Talks between Iran and 6 world powers have entered an ambitious new stage with 2 sides sitting down to start drafting the text of a final deal.AP

VIENNA Talks between Iran and six world powers hit a major snag Friday over the future size of a nuclear program that Tehran says it needs to expand to fuel atomic reactors, but which the U.S. fears could be used to make nuclear weapons.

The disagreement had been looming in the background since talks began Feb. 18 on a comprehensive deal meant to constrain Iranian nuclear work that can make such arms in exchange for full sanctions relief on Tehran's economy. So negotiators had concentrated on less contentious components of a final deal in previous rounds.

But both sides reported difficulties as the talks went into their third day.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqhchi told Iran's IRNA news agency the negotiations are moving "very slowly and with difficulty."

A Western official with detailed knowledge of the negotiations was more specific, telling The Associated Press the two sides were at loggerheads over enrichment.

Iran denies any interest in nuclear weapons, saying its enrichment program is meant only to make reactor fuel. But because the technology can also create weapons-grade uranium for warheads depending on the level of enrichment, Washington and its allies want strict constraints on its size and scope.

The official declined to go into the specifics of what separated the two on the issue at the negotiating table and demanded anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the confidential talks.

But general differences have long been known. Iran's nuclear chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, has said publicly that Tehran needs up to 100,000 centrifuges -- the enriching machines -- for a future nuclear network.

That's about five times as many as the centrifuges Iran now has standing but idle, 10 times that of the machines actually enriching -- and much more than the few thousand that diplomats say the U.S. and its allies are prepared to allow.

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Iran nuclear talks run into snags