Iran and the United States will hold talks in Baghdad aimed at establishing security in Iraq, Iran's Foreign Ministry said yesterday.

 

The US responded by repeating its willingness to hold talks with Iran as long as they are limited to Iraq.

 

The timing of the talks was unclear, with the official IRNA news agency at first saying they would be next week but later reporting the date would become clear by Friday.

 

Talks are rare between Iran and the US, which accuses Teheran both of backing Shi'ite militia in Iraq and seeking an atomic bomb a charge Iran denies. The two states have had no diplomatic ties for more than a quarter of a century.

 

"With the aim of easing the pain of the Iraqi people, supporting the Iraqi government and strengthening security in Iraq... Iran will talk with the American side in Baghdad," IRNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini as saying.

 

Hosseini's office confirmed his comments, but IRNA also quoted Hosseini as saying: "The place of talks is definitely Iraq. The exact date and level of the negotiating team will become clear by Friday."

 

A spokeswoman for US Vice-President Dick Cheney said several US officials had expressed willingness to discuss Iraq and made clear that would be at ambassadorial level.

 

"We are willing to have that conversation, focused on Iraq, at that level. That has not changed," said Lea Anne McBride, a spokeswoman for Cheney, who was in Cairo meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as part of a Middle East trip.

 

Iran denies backing the insurgency in Iraq and accuses Washington of igniting tensions between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims. Analysts say Washington and Teheran are both concerned about worsening violence, pushing them to agree to meet.

 

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice exchanged pleasantries at a lunch on the sidelines of a conference in Egypt this month on efforts to stabilize Iraq but held no substantive discussions.

 

(China Daily May 14, 2007)