Iran says no one-to-one talks with US in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, Mar 10 (Reuters) The top Iranian official attending a regional conference on Iraq said today he had no one-to-one talks with US officials but he did call for a withdrawal of US forces and rejected charges of interference.

''There were no one-to-one meetings, everything was in the framework of the meeting,'' Abbas Araghchi, deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, told a news conference after the one-day conference in Baghdad.

''There were no direct talks between us and the Americans,'' Araghchi said.

Asked if he had direct talks with the Iranians, US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad told an earlier news conference: ''I did talk to them directly and in the presence of others. We engaged across the table as well.'' Iraq called today's meeting to enlist the support of neighbours to achieve peace in Iraq but it was also closely watched as a rare opportunity for US and Iranian officials to sit down together as tension grows over Iran's nuclear aims.

Araghchi said foreign forces were fuelling a cycle of bloodshed in Iraq. Their presence was used to justify violence, and in turn the violence was used to justify the presence of foreign forces.

''The presence of foreign forces cannot help the security in Iraq in long term,'' Araghchi said. ''We need a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces.'' Araghchi said the meeting had been constructive ''but it doesn't mean that we didn't raise our concerns''. He said Tehran was concerned about growing sectarian violence in Iraq.

''We're concerned about double standards towards terrorism in Iraq,'' he said. ''There are different terrorist groups in Iraq.

We have no right to divide these groups into good and bad terrorists,'' he said.

Washington has recently expressed growing concern about Shi'ite militias such as the Mehdi Army, saying they pose as grave a threat to Iraq's security as Sunni Arab insurgents.

''Stability in Iraq is a necessity for the peace and stability of the region,'' Araghchi said. ''Security of Iraq is our security.

''There is no reason why we should interfere in Iraqi politics other than supporting peace and stability in Iraq,'' he said, rebuffing US charges that Iran is fuelling violence by arming some militant groups in Iraq.

Araghchi hit out at the United States over what he called its ''intelligence failure''.

''They have made so many mistakes (in Iraq) ... because of the false information and intelligence they had at the beginning,'' he said.

REUTERS MS PM2318