Iran, Syria and US to attend Baghdad talks-Iraq

BAGHDAD, Feb 27 (Reuters) Officials from regional states including Iran and Syria will join US and British envoys at a meeting in Baghdad next month to seek ways to stabilise Iraq, the Iraqi foreign minister today said.

The mid-March meeting would be a chance for Western and regional powers to try to bridge some of their differences over Iraq, Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said.

''Our hope is that this will be an ice-breaking attempt for maybe holding other meetings in the future. We want Iraq, instead of being a divisive issue, to be a unifying issue,'' Zebari said by telephone from Denmark where he is on a visit.

In December, a report by the bipartisan US Iraq Study Group recommended direct talks with Damascus and Tehran to persuade them to help stem violence in Iraq.

US President George W Bush reacted coolly. He has not ruled out a regional conference on Iraq involving Iran and Syria but the White House has indicated Iraq would have to set it up.

Underscoring the chaos in Iraq, car bombs and other blasts in Baghdad killed nine people and wounded 25 despite a new US-backed security offensive in the capital, police said.

In the northern city of Mosul, a suicide truck bomber killed six policemen and wounded 25 other people outside a police station.

Witnesses said the blast destroyed the station.

Yesterday, Vice President Adel Abdul-Mahdi suffered minor wounds when a bomb killed seven at the Public Works Ministry. The dead included Ghazi Naji al-Anbari, a deputy minister, who died from his wounds on Monday evening, his son said.

TOUGH NEGOTIATIONS Iraq has been planning the March meeting for weeks, but until today it had been expected to involve only officials from countries bordering Iraq and other Muslim states.

Zebari said the meeting would involve deputy foreign ministers or senior officials from Iraq's neighbours.

Ambassadors from the five permanent members of the United Nations who are based in Baghdad have confirmed they will take part, he said. ''Everybody agreed to attend after tough negotiations,'' Zebari said.

A US embassy spokesman said he had no immediate comment. A British embassy spokeswoman said the British would attend the meeting but it was unclear at what level.

Other participants would come from the United Nations and the Arab League, Zebari said.

Asked if US officials could have separate meetings with the Iranians and Syrians, Zebari said: ''We want to put them all in the one hall first, then explore the other possibilities.'' Washington accuses Iran of fanning violence in Iraq and has recently presented what the US military says is evidence Iranian-manufactured weapons are being smuggled into Iraq.

US officials accuse Syria of allowing foreign fighters to cross its long, porous border with Iraq to join those fighting the US-backed government.

Both countries deny the accusations.

SADR CITY RAIDS US and Iraqi security forces launched the new crackdown against militants in Baghdad two weeks ago, but car bombs and rocket attacks have persisted. The bodies of 25 people, most showing signs of torture, were found around Baghdad yesterday.

Among attacks in Baghdad today, the deadliest was a car bomb in the Karrada commercial district that killed five people.

The US military said Iraqi special forces backed by US advisers detained 16 people suspected of involvement in murder, torture and kidnapping during raids in the Mehdi Army militia stronghold of Sadr City in Baghdad today.

The Mehdi Army, a militia loyal to radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who is a key political ally of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, has been called by Washington the greatest threat to security in Iraq.

The US statement today's raids referred to ''rogue'' Mehdi Army cells.

Sadr has denied charges the Mehdi Army operates death squads responsible for killing Sunni Arabs, blaming rogue elements outside his control for any such activities.

Lieutenant-General Raymond Odierno, number two US general in Iraq, said the ''large majority'' of Iraqi forces were not infiltrated by militias or driven by sectarian loyalties, and said he was ''cautiously optimistic'' about the security plan.

Reuters SY DB2351