SUPREME Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran would not step back from its nuclear rights and his negotiating team had been set limits for talks over the country's disputed nuclear programme.

Negotiators from Iran and six world powers met yesterday for two days of talks in Geneva for the second time this month. A first round narrowly missed reaching an interim deal due to what diplomats said was Iran's insistence on its right to enrich uranium, and French concerns over an Iranian heavy water reactor.

In a speech to tens of thousands of volunteer Basij militiamen in Tehran, Ayatollah Khamenei said: "We do insist we will not step back one iota from our rights."

But the most powerful figure in Iran added: "We do not intervene in the details of these talks. There are certain red lines and limits. These have to be observed. They are instructed to abide by those limits."

In a likely reference to UN, US and EU sanctions imposed over Iran's nuclear activities, Ayatollah Khamenei said: "Iranians will succumb to no one under pressure."

The Supreme Leader also criticised French President Francois Hollande, who assured Israel on Sunday that France would continue to oppose an easing of economic sanctions against Iran until it was convinced Tehran had given up any pursuit of nuclear weapons.

That drew an angry response from officials in Paris.