Tehran stance "very negative" on Iraq - US's Gates

BRUSSELS, Jan 15 (Reuters) US Defense Secretary Robert Gates accused Iran today of doing nothing to help the United States in Iraq, saying Washington could only engage with Tehran if it showed it was ready to be constructive.

Gates, making a first visit to NATO headquarters in Brussels after taking over from Donald Rumsfeld last month, said the Iranians ''clearly believe that we are tied down in Iraq, that they have the initiative''.

''They're doing nothing to be constructive in Iraq at this point. In addition, they have supported Hezbollah's efforts to create a new conflict in Lebanon,'' he told a news conference after talks with NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer.

''And so the Iranians are acting in a very negative way in many respects. My view is that when the Iranians are prepared to play a constructive role in dealing with some of these problems, then there might be opportunities for engagement,'' he said.

Tehran denies backing the insurgency in Iraq and blames U.S.

troops for the violence and for stoking tensions between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.

It further denies Western accusations that it armed and financed Lebanon's Hezbollah guerrillas during a 34-day war last year with Israel, insisting it merely provided the group with political and moral succour.

The bipartisan Iraq Study Group called last year for Washington to deal directly with Syria and Iran, with whom it broke off ties in 1979, to help rein in violence in Iraq.

But Tehran's reaction has been cautious and US officials including Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have insisted Iran must first suspend uranium enrichment as part of a nuclear programme the West suspects is aimed at securing the bomb. Iran says its programme is to generate energy.

LONG HAUL PRESENCE Gates played down the significance of recent orders by President George W Bush to send an additional carrier strike group to the region and deploy Patriot missile defence systems, steps widely seen as a warning to Iran and Syria.

''We are simply reaffirming that statement of the importance of the Gulf region to the United States and our determination to be an ongoing strong presence in that area for a long time into the future,'' he said.

Bush asked Gates, a former CIA chief, to replace Donald Rumsfeld after the president's Republican party lost control of the US Congress in November elections. The defeat was driven in large measure by voter anger over the Iraq war.

Gates held talks this weekend with British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London and plans to head for Afghanistan, where NATO leads a 32,000-strong peacekeeping force.

US officials say they have information suggesting the Taliban are planning a campaign to build on their resurgence in 2006 and Gates wants to ensure that any progress there is not put at risk by the hardline Taliban Islamists.

''...Success in Afghanistan is our top priority ... It's important that the members of NATO fulfil the commitments that each has made to one another,'' Gates said.

He did not elaborate, but there has been a sometimes bitter debate in the alliance over getting allies including Germany, France, Spain and Italy to do more to face down the insurgency in the south of the country, the heartland of the Taliban.

De Hoop Scheffer said Gates's decision to visit NATO so early in his term showed the importance of the alliance, which the United States bypassed when it invaded Afghanistan to oust the Taliban in 2001.

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