Iran's senior navy commander denied state media reports that Iran had test-fired long-range missiles during a naval drill on Saturday, saying the missiles would be launched in the next few days.

Mahmoud Mousavi told Iran's English-language Press TV "the exercise of launching missiles will be carried out in the coming days."

The semi-official Fars news agency, Press TV and the state-run IRNA news agency had earlier reported that Iran had test-fired long-range and other missiles during the exercise on Saturday.

"All kinds of surface-to-sea, sea-to-sea and surface-to-air as well as shoulder-launched missiles will be tested in the coming days," Mousavi told Press TV.

The 10-day naval drill, which began last Saturday, coincided with increased tension in Iran's nuclear row with Western powers, after the European Union said it was considering a ban - already in place in the United States - on imports of Iranian oil.

Iran says the drill is aimed at showing Iran's resolve to counter any attack by enemies such as Israel or the United States.

The United States and Israel have not ruled out a military option if diplomacy fails to resolve the nuclear dispute with Iran.

The U.S. and its allies say Iran wants to build nuclear bombs under cover of a civilian program of uranium enrichment. Iran denies this.

State media reported on Saturday that Iran is ready to resume nuclear talks with world powers.

Foreign Minister Ali-Akbar Salehi said in a meeting with a visiting Chinese official in Tehran that Iran was ready to resume talks with the six world powers over its nuclear programs.

Additionally, chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili plans to inform European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton about Iran's readiness to resume the nuclear talks.

Mehr news agency quoted Iran's ambassador to Berlin, Ali-Reza Sheikh-Attar, as saying that Jalili would soon forward the intention of Iranian readiness to Ashton, who leads the six involved parties - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - in the talks.

Ashton said in September that restarting the six-party talks with Iran was possible, but under strict conditions.

All talks between the two sides, including the latest round in January in Istanbul, have failed so far to achieve any tangible result.

The main reason is that Iran has constantly rejected the key Western demand - suspension of its uranium enrichment plan as a sign of goodwill until the peaceful nature of the Iranian nuclear programs are proven.