BEIJING - China on Friday encouraged Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to further strengthen cooperation after the two parties ended their two-day talks in Tehran Thursday.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a daily press briefing that China also hopes that Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US plus Germany) will meet for a new round of talks at an early date.

"We always believe that the only right way to properly solve the Iranian nuclear issue is to promote dialogue and cooperation," he said.

As a result of the talks in Iran's capital, the parties agreed to meet on Feb 12 for another round of negotiations, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported.