'Iranian support for militias in Iraq rising'

Iranian support for militias who are destabilising Iraq has risen since the United States and Iran held breakthrough talks in Baghdad in May, the US envoy to Iraq said yesterday after a fresh round of discussions.

Ryan Crocker told a news conference after talks on Iraq's security crisis with his Iranian counterpart that much of the dialogue was "not terribly relevant".

"The two months since May have not exactly been encouraging," Mr Crocker said after meeting Iranian ambassador Hassan Kazemi-Qomi for several hours. "The fact is, and we made very clear in today's talk, that over the roughly two months we have actually seen militia-related activities that can be attributed to Iranian support go up and not down."

There was no immediate response from the Iranian delegation. Washington accuses Shi'ite Muslim Iran of fomenting violence in Iraq.

Iran denies the charge and blames the US-led invasion in 2003 for the bloodshed between Iraq's majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Arabs.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki earlier urged the two sides to help Iraq and warned that insurgent groups like al Qaeda were moving to other countries after they were hit in Iraq.