Iraq sees new round of US-Iran talks soon

Iran and the US will meet shortly to discuss security in Iraq, to follow up a landmark meeting held in May, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said yesterday.

The worsening chaos has pushed the two countries, which have not had diplomatic ties since shortly after Iran's 1979 revolution, to seek common ground on Iraq.

Twenty-nine villagers were gunned down in Diyala province on Monday by men dressed in Iraqi military uniforms, an Iraqi security official said.

He blamed militants who had fled US and Iraqi troops conducting a major operation to corner suspected Sunni al Qaeda Islamists in Baquba. US commanders say many of the militants got away.

Washington accuses Shi'ite Iran of fomenting sectarian violence in Iraq. Iran denies backing the anti-US insurgency and blames the US-led invasion in 2003 for the bloodshed between Iraq's majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Arabs.

"I can confirm that there will be a second round of talks in Baghdad soon. It will be at the ambassadorial level. Iraq will be there and the talks will be about Iraq's stability and security," Mr Zebari said.

In Tehran, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters he saw a "high possibility" a second round would take place in the "near future". Officials at the US embassy in Baghdad said they had no comment at this stage.

The Iranian and the US ambassadors to Iraq last met in Baghdad on May 28 - the most high-profile meeting of the two foes in almost three decades. The US has been leading diplomatic efforts to isolate Iran over its nuclear ambitions - but both sides say any talks will focus solely on matters in Iraq.

Underlining the chaos in the country, four people were killed and five others wounded by a car bomb inside a parking lot opposite the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, police said.

In a sign that Iraq's deeply divided politicians might be bridging some of their many differences, the bloc of the anti-American Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said it had ended a boycott of parliament with immediate effect.

"Starting from today, we have ended our suspension in parliament. We are back," said Nassar al-Rubaei, spokesman for the bloc in Parliament.

Mr Rubaei said the bloc had received assurances from Parliament over demands for the government to protect shrines.

It had withdrawn from parliament on June 13 after the twin minarets of the Golden Mosque in Samarra were destroyed by suspected Sunni Islamist al Qaeda militants, complaining that the government had not done enough to protect the shrine. The movement occupies 30 of Parliament's 275 seats, a quarter of the total held by the ruling Shi'ite Alliance of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Washington is also pressing for power-sharing laws to help reconcile Iraq's Shi'ites, Sunni Arabs and Kurds.