Iran rejects Iraq talks with US

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 yesterday.

"We had decided to have direct talks on the issue of Iraq with Americans," Mr 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, Mr Mottaki also warned the US 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.

Mr 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.

Violence raged across the country again yesterday. One bomb killed nine in Baghdad, and another near a crowded market in the capital killed at least 10 and wounded 18, police said.

The US 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.

Mr 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.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, visiting Washington, urged the international community to put aside past divisions and support the political process in Iraq.

"The war, I know, split the world. The struggle of Iraqis for democracy should unite it," said Mr Blair in a foreign policy speech at Georgetown University.

Mr 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".