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| U.S., Iran hold rare talks on Iraq violence |
| Baghdad, 28.05.2007 |
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| BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. and Iranian officials began their most high-profile talks in almost three decades on Monday to discuss Iraq's spiraling violence, which Washington says is fuelled by Iran.
Iran denies the charge, despite the U.S. military putting on display what it says are Iranian-made rockets, mortars and sophisticated roadside bombs seized in Iraq.
Underlining the need for any measure which might help curb the violence, a car bomb killed 19 and wounded 46 central Baghdad on Monday.
While mid-ranking officials from Iran and the United States have met occasionally in the past, Monday's talks are the most widely publicized bilateral talks since the start of the 1980s. Washington severed diplomatic relations with Iran in 1980.
U.S. and Iranian officials do not expect any breakthroughs from the talks, which come as U.S. warships hold war games in the Gulf and after Tehran said it had uncovered spy networks on its territory run by the United States and its allies.
The talks are also overshadowed by Tehran's continued stand-off with the West over its nuclear program, which it says is for the peaceful generation of electricity but the United States says is being used to develop a nuclear bomb.
But the nuclear issue will not be up for discussion on Monday. Only one item will be on the agenda -- Iraq, where sectarian violence between minority Sunnis and majority Shi'ites threatens all-out civil war that could spill into the region.
U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi-Qomi met at Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's office in the fortified Green Zone in Baghdad. The two envoys shook hands before sitting across the table from each other.
Maliki, who was present at the start of the meeting, told the two delegations that Iraq would not be a launchpad for any attacks on neighboring states, an apparent reference to Iranian fears of a U.S. attack.
He also said U.S. troops would remain in Iraq until they had completed their training of Iraq's security forces. Iran has repeatedly called on U.S. forces to get out of Iraq. Maliki said Iraqis wanted a country free of regional interference.
"We are sure that securing progress in this meeting would, without doubt, enhance the bridges of trust between the two countries and create a positive atmosphere" that would help them deal with other issues, he said.
Crocker has said he does not expect "any stunning, startling breakthroughs" from the meeting. U.S. officials say he will press Iran to take steps to reduce violence in Iraq.
In Tehran, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran saw the aim of the meeting as "correcting the policies of the occupiers in this country ... and helping the Iraqi nation."
FIVE IRANIANS HELD
In the past few months, the U.S. military has shown sophisticated roadside bombs and other weapons it says are being supplied by Iran to Iraqi militants to target American soldiers.
The U.S. military also says Shi'ite militias are receiving funding and training in Iran. In February, U.S. troops detained five Iranians accused of ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards, although Iran says they are diplomats.
The fate of the five is a bargaining chip for the Americans, although Mottaki said last week he had been assured by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari they could be freed by June 21.
Bush, who initially rejected talks with Iran, is coming under growing domestic pressure to end the four-year-old war as U.S. casualties continue to mount.
At least 103 U.S. soldiers have died this month, just one short of the total in April, the worst month so far this year.
Bush has committed nearly 30,000 more troops to a major security crackdown in Baghdad aimed at curbing violence between majority Shi'ites and Sunnis Arabs. After three months of sharp declines, sectarian murders in the capital are on the rise, and Iraqi police reported finding 44 bodies on Sunday.
The crackdown has also forced many militants to move to areas outside the capital, where they have set up new bases, particularly in volatile Diyala province north of the capital.
The U.S. military said U.S. and Iraqi troops had raided a suspected al Qaeda prison camp in Diyala in an air and ground assault on Sunday and freed 41 men, some of whom had been held for four months.
(Additional reporting by Fredrik Dahl in Tehran)
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