Iran rejects Iraq talks with US 'for now'

BAGHDAD - Iran has ruled out for now proposed talks with the United States over the future of Iraq because of Washington's "negative" attitude, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said today.

"We had decided to have direct talks on the issue of Iraq with Americans," Mottaki, visiting Baghdad, said at a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshiyar Zebari.

"Unfortunately, the American side tried to use this decision as propaganda and they raised some other issues. They tried to create a negative atmosphere and that's why the decision which was taken for the time being is suspended," he added.

After meeting new Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Mottaki also warned the United States it would face retaliation if it mounted any attack on the Islamic Republic.

"In the event that Americans attack Iran anywhere, Iran will respond with an attack in that place," he told a separate news conference with Iraqi parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani.

Mottaki, whose visit has spotlighted Shi'ite Iran's role in its US-occupied neighbour, also said Tehran would host a regional meeting on Iraq but did not specify when.

He met Maliki less than a week after the Shi'ite Islamist formed a national unity government pledging to curb persistent violence that has shown no sign of abating. A bomb killed nine people in Baghdad on Friday.

The United States has no diplomatic relations with Iran. President George W Bush has authorised his ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, to hold talks with Iran on what Washington says is meddling there by Tehran, but none have so far taken place amid reports of divisions in the US administration.

In April, Washington said talks with Iran were on hold as Iraq's government was being formed. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also said last month there was no need for such talks for the time being.

Mottaki's trip was the second such visit from Iran since US-led forces overthrew Saddam Hussein in 2003 and oversaw the election of an Iraqi Shi'ite Muslim leadership close to the Islamic Republic.

Saddam's once-dominant Sunni Arab minority is suspicious of non-Arab Iran. Its leaders accuse Tehran of fomenting unrest in Iraq to shackle US military power in the region and of coveting oil reserves in Iraq's Shi'ite south.

US and British officials also accuse Iranian forces of providing bomb-making expertise and equipment to Iraqis.

Mottaki said Tehran would invite Iraq's neighbours and Egypt for a meeting on the country at "the first opportunity".

"The regional countries at this meeting will emphasise the continuation of a joint determination to help restore peace and security in Iraq," he said.

In a sign of how relations between Iraq and Iran have improved since Saddam's downfall, Zebari said Tehran had the right to develop a peaceful nuclear programme.

Washington and Tehran are fiercely at odds over Western accusations that Iran's nuclear power programme is a cover for making weapons. Iran says it is seeking only nuclear energy.

"We believe in the wisdom of the Islamic Republic leadership in handling this subject and we are against any tension in the situation with the Islamic Republic," Zebari, a Kurd, said.

Bush said in Washington he would consider providing incentives to Iran if it agreed to a suspension of uranium enrichment activities.

At a White House news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Bush said they spent a lot of time discussing strategy on how to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Bush also cited the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal as America's "biggest mistake" in Iraq and admitted that aggressive language from him about the Sunni insurgents - telling them to "bring 'em on" in 2003 - may have "sent the wrong message".

- REUTERS