President Francois Hollande said Monday that sanctions on Iran will remain in place as long as France is not convinced that Tehran has "definitively renounced" its alleged nuclear weapons program.

"I confirm here that we will maintain the sanctions as long as we are not certain that Iran has definitively and irreversibly renounced its military program to obtain nuclear weapons," he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told his Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani on Monday there was "a real chance" to find a solution to the decade-old stand-off over Tehran's nuclear drive.

The Kremlin said Putin had called Rouhani to discuss the Syrian crisis as well as a new round of talks about the nuclear standoff that is set to begin in Geneva on Wednesday.

Oil prices dipped in Asian trade Monday on profit-taking and ahead of fresh international talks on Iran's nuclear program, analysts said.

New York's main contract, West Texas Intermediate for delivery in December, fell 31 cents to $93.53, while Brent North Sea crude for January was also down 31 cents at $108.19.

Iran's conservative-dominated parliament on Sunday approved President Hassan Rouhani's nominee for sports minister, filling out the cabinet after rejecting a number of earlier picks, media reported.

Mahmoud Goudarzi, currently head of the Faculty of Physical Education and Sports Science at the University of Tehran, received 199 of the 267 votes cast, with 44 opposed and 24 abstaining.

Israel and its U.S. ally have hit a troubled patch in their close relationship, caused by differences over Iran's nuclear plans and peace with the Palestinians.

In a highly public spat, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama are each seeking to directly address the other's public.

A nuclear deal with Iran is possible at the next round of talks in Geneva, a U.S. official said Friday, but warned tough issues still had to be hammered out.

"We are going to work very hard next week. I don't know if we'll reach an agreement. I think it is quite possible that we can. But there's still tough issues to negotiate," the senior administration official told reporters.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was unimpressed by a report from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday that Iran had frozen its nuclear activities.

Iran's archenemy Israel takes a hard line on international pressures for Tehran to rein in its controversial nuclear program and has not ruled out military action against it.

Iran has frozen the expansion of its nuclear activities, a UN atomic watchdog report said Thursday, in a possible confidence-building measure by new President Hassan Rouhani before talks next week.

The International Atomic Energy Agency said that in the last three months only four new centrifuges had been installed at Iran's Natanz plant, compared to 1,861 machines put in place in the previous period.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry Thursday revealed for the first time that the United States is offering to free up "a tiny portion" of some $45 billion in Iranian assets frozen in bank accounts around the world.

As he campaigns to sell skeptical U.S. lawmakers a nascent deal with Iran to rein in its suspect nuclear program, Kerry insisted "the core sanctions regime does not really get eased."

French President Francois Hollande and U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday jointly urged Iran to accept a deal presented by world powers on its nuclear program, Hollande's office said.

In a statement issued after a call between the two leaders, they also expressed support for the text of an agreement put forward by world powers at recent talks in Geneva.