EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, leading ongoing nuclear talks with Iran in Vienna, is considering asking foreign ministers to attend but no decision has been made, her spokesman said Wednesday.

Ashton "is thinking about when to engage ministers as we move forward but no decisions have been made as yet. It would be an opportunity for them to take stock of where we are in the process," spokesman Michael Mann told AFP.

Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip, calling on the West to urge the Jewish state to prevent a "human catastrophe".

The remarks by Iran, traditional ally of Palestinian militant group Hamas, came after Israeli warplanes pounded targets in Gaza as part of a major campaign to halt rocket fire from the enclave.

France's foreign minister hinted Tuesday at divergences between Russia and Western countries currently involved in a decisive final round of talks with Iran to negotiate a deal on its controversial nuclear drive.

"Whereas until now the P5+1 (the United States, France, Britain, Russia, China and Germany) had a very homogeneous attitude, in the past days representatives in the negotiations have put forward a certain number of different approaches between part of the 5+1 and our Russian partners," he told a parliamentary commission.

Iran's supreme leader revealed Tuesday that his country ultimately wants 190,000 nuclear centrifuges -- a huge figure that lays bare the massive gap between Tehran and world powers negotiating a deal.

Iranian journalist Marzieh Rasouli said on Monday that she has been sentenced to two years in Tehran's notorious Evin prison and 50 lashes for publishing anti-regime propaganda.

Rasouli, respected for her work as an arts and culture reporter for leading reformist media outlets, including the Shargh and Etemaad dailies, was detained in January 2012 as part of a crackdown.

An Iranian pilot has been killed while fighting against Sunni jihadists in Iraq, state media reported Saturday, in what is thought to be Tehran's first such military casualty.

Iran's official IRNA news agency did not say whether the pilot died while flying sorties or fighting on the ground.

Russia signaled Friday that a deal could be clinched in Iran nuclear negotiations, as there is "political will" and a sense of urgency among participants for an accord before a July 20 deadline.

"One feels political will of the participants, and a certain fear that we may not be quick enough -- that is a good sign in this situation. There is not much time left. But there are chances," Russia's deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov told Kommersant newspaper.

Three Sukhoi ground attack jets shown landing in Iraq in a video released by the defense ministry are likely from Iran, a think tank said Wednesday.

Iraq has purchased more than a dozen Sukhoi jets from Russia in a bid to bolster its forces in their battle against a sweeping militant offensive that has overrun large areas of five provinces.

The U.S. and Iran fired opening salvos Wednesday in a stormy Vienna as a final round of nuclear talks got under way with chances of a historic deal by a July 20 deadline on a knife edge.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany want Iran to scale down its nuclear activities in order to ease long-held fears that Tehran might develop atomic weapons.

Iran will not send troops to fight a militant offensive in Iraq but will supply weapons if the government in Baghdad asks for help, the deputy foreign minister said Tuesday.

"We have no intention of sending our armed forces into Iraq. Iraq has its own powerful army," Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on a visit to Moscow, although he said the country would be sending military "consultants."