Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi told reporters on Thursday that Iran wants to hold "unconditional" talks with Western powers on the package that was offered to them if they would abandon their nuclear program.

"We are convinced that it [the package] contains a lot of positive elements, but a lot of them are still unclear to us and raise questions," Araghchi told reporters during a trip to the Kazakh city of Almaty.

On Thursday Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad welcomed the package of incentives as a "step forward." Speaking at a news conference in Shanghai, he said that Iran would have to consider the offer very carefully. The package , drawn up by the UN Security Council -- the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China -- plus Germany, is believed to contain trade and security guarantees, reports the BBC.

The UN Security Council and Germany have been trying to get Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions for some time -- due to fears that it intends to develop a weapons program. If Iran does not accept this package, then it is likely that Europe and the US will put pressure on the UN to impose sanctions on Tehran.

Ahmadinejad has repeatedly told reporters that Iran is not trying to develop nuclear weapons and that its nuclear program is for energy-generation and civilian use. "Sanctions should not be used as leverage or pressure against the countries of the world," Ahmadinejad said.

The US recently abandoned its long-standing opposition to direct talks with Tehran, saying it would join negotiations as long as Iran suspended uranium enrichment.

Ahmadinejad was in China to attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit meeting as an observer. The group includes China, Russia and nine Central and South Asian nations, and Iran would like to join eventually as a full member. While at the meeting, the Iranian leader held talks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and China's President Hu Jintao. Both countries have indicated that they would oppose sanctions.

Ahmadinejad told the SCO summit on Thursday that the members should combine their clout to bolster the region's resistance to the United States, saying they could "turn the SCO into a strong, influential economic, political and trading institution at both regional and international levels and prevent threats of domineering powers and their agressive intereference in global affairs."