VIENNA — Hopes for a final agreement in the Iran nuclear talks were put on ice Monday, as Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said no deal was imminent and the White House said the talks might be extended for a fourth time.

Secretary of State John Kerry huddled with Zarif on Monday, after an hourlong meeting of foreign ministers from all six nations negotiating as a bloc with Iran, known collectively as the P5+1 – the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China and Germany.

Though diplomats in the morning held out the possibility of a final agreement before the midnight expiration of an interim agreement, those hopes were dashed shortly before nightfall.

That’s when Zarif, making one of his periodic appearances on the third-floor balcony of the Coburg Palace Hotel where the talks are being held, was asked by reporters on the street below whether an agreement was still possible Monday.

“No,” he answered, characterizing the mood in the closed-door negotiations as “sleepy, overworked.”

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the talks would be extended again if the negotiators believe more time will lead to a successful agreement. He said the U.S. negotiating team would remain in Vienna. Kerry last week warned that the talks were not “open ended” and said the United States was prepared to walk away from them.

“What started out as rather a long list of differences has slowly … but steadily narrowed,” Earnest said Monday. “That’s an indication that we are making progress toward an agreement.”

“What’s also true is that typically some of the most difficult issues are the ones that get kicked to the end,” he said. “That’s why the president is going to resist any effort to sort of fast-forward toward the closing.”

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