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IRAQ - Iraqi officials are pressing for talks between United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and her Iranian counterpart today at an international conference looking for ways to end the Iraq conflict, diplomats said.
But the diplomats, who declined to be named, said Iran was holding out against substantial contacts with Rice, although she and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki exchanged what US officials described as pleasantries over lunch yesterday.
Rice's encounter with Mottaki and talks with Syria's foreign minister yesterday marked a shift in US President George W. Bush's once resolute opposition to high-level contacts with Iran and Syria as he seeks ways to end the Iraq conflict.
Baghdad's interest in seeing a Rice-Mottaki meeting is clear, as it is widely acknowledged Shiite Muslim Iran is an influential force on Iraq, both as a neighbour and because of its links with the Shiite-led Iraqi Government.
The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, did not rule out a meeting between Rice and Mottaki.
"We will see what options present themselves," he said. "The point from our side is not to have meetings with the Iranians. It is what can we do in Iraq and what can we do in the region to create better circumstances and a better future for the Iraqis."
Talks between Rice and Mottaki would be one of the highest-level US-Iran contacts since a 1979 revolution turned Iran from a close US ally into the arch-foe Islamic Republic. Over the years, Iran has been the less enthusiastic on dialogue.
Iraq has met its neighbours several times over the past three years and has received promises of co-operation on border security, but says insurgents are still able to smuggle fighters and weapons into the country.
Baghdad is dependent on US military support in its drive to halt a slide into all-out civil war by stamping out sectarian violence and defeating insurgents who draw support from the Sunni Arab minority once-dominant under Saddam Hussein.
Washington has accused Iran of fomenting violence in Iraq. Tehran rejects the charge.
Lower level US and Iranian envoys spoke to each other directly about Iraq at regional talks in Baghdad in March.
At the conference in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Iraq's neighbours as well as ministers from the Group of Eight leading industrialised nations and the European Union will discuss how to stabilise the country.
Rice's 30-minute meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem yesterday was Washington's highest-level contact with Syria in more than two years.
- REUTERS
