UNGA: Biden renews offer to return to full nuclear deal ’if Iran does the same’

US President Joe Biden told the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Tuesday that the United States would return to the Iranian nuclear deal in "full" if Tehran does the same.

He said the United States was "working" with China, France, Russia, Britain and Germany to "engage Iran diplomatically and to seek a return to" the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which America left in 2018.

"We're prepared to return to full compliance if Iran does the same," he added.

Meanwhile, Iran said on Tuesday that talks with world powers over reviving its 2015 nuclear deal would resume in a few weeks, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

"Every meeting requires prior coordination and the preparation of an agenda. As previously emphasised, the Vienna talks will resume soon and over the next few weeks," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, according to IRNA.

The world powers held six rounds of indirect talks between the United States and Iran in Vienna to try and work out how both can return to compliance with the nuclear pact, which was abandoned by former U.S. President Donald Trump in 2018. The talks stopped in June, pending the start of Iran's new government.

Addressing the UNGA for the first time as president, Biden promised to work to advance democracy and alliances, despite friction with Europe over France's loss of a mega-contract.

The Biden administration has identified a rising and authoritarian China as the paramount challenge of the 21st century, but in his United Nations debut he made clear he was not trying to sow divisions.

"We are not seeking a new Cold War or a world divided into rigid blocs," Biden said.

"The United States is ready to work with any nation that steps up and pursues peaceful resolution to share challenges even if we have intense disagreement in other areas."

Biden did not mention China by name, other than voicing alarm about human rights in Xinjiang, where experts say more than one million people from the Uyghur and other mostly Muslim populations are incarcerated.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is set to address the General Assembly later Tuesday but by video in light of Covid-19 precautions.

Biden declared himself to be the first US president in 20 years not to be running a war after his controversial pullout of troops from Afghanistan, where the Taliban swiftly took over.

Instead, America is "opening a new era of relentless diplomacy" in which military power must be the "tool of last resort."

"The mission must be clear and achievable, undertaken with informed consent of the American people and whenever possible in partnership with our allies," Biden said from the UN rostrum where previous US presidents, notably including George W. Bush, have pushed for military action.