US, Iran trade barbed words at Baghdad talks

BAGHDAD, Mar 10 (Reuters) US and Iranian envoys today spoke to each other directly at a regional meeting in Baghdad but their exchanges dealt only with problems in Iraq and not with nuclear diplomacy.

Iraq's foreign minister said the US and Iranian delegates had a ''lively exchange''. All sides said talks were constructive and focused on Iraq, not straying into delicate areas such as Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The top Iranian official at the talks said he had no one-to-one talks with US officials. He called for a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and rejected charges of interference in the country.

''There were no one-to-one meetings, everything was in the framework of the meeting,'' said Abbas Araghchi, deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs.

US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said he had spoken directly to Iranian officials, as well as over the table.

In an interview with Tim Russert broadcast on Sunday morning on NBC'S ''Meet the Press'', he said he shook hands with the Iranians.

Iraq called the meeting to enlist the support of its neighbours to help end the bloodshed, but it was closely watched as a rare moment for US and Iranian officials to sit down together at a time of growing tension of Iran's nuclear aims.

Washington has led international calls for tougher sanctions on Iran over its refusal to stop enriching uranium, which could be used for nuclear weapons, and it has accused Iran of backing Shi'ite militias in southern Iraq. Tehran denies both.

''There is no reason why we should interfere in Iraqi politics other than supporting peace and stability in Iraq,'' Araghchi said. He said he had demanded the release of six Iranians he said were ''abducted'' in Iraq by US forces.

US soldiers seized five men Tehran says are diplomats in a raid on an Iranian government office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on January 11, in the second such incident in a month.

In a speech to the conference, Khalilzad pointedly urged Iraq's neighbours to stop the flow of weapons, fighters and sectarian propaganda fuelling violence in Iraq.

He denied US-led forces had anyone in detention who was a diplomat.

CAREFULLY COORDINATED Washington, which has no diplomatic relations with Iran, has had contacts with Iranian officials in group settings, including as recently as September, but has resisted bilateral talks.

The Iranian delegation arrived in the conference hall and took their seats without making any direct contact with US delegates shortly before the meeting officially opened.

After a public opening session, the delegates retired to a private conference room where Iraqi and US officials sat at either end of a long table, with Araghchi next to the Iraqi.

The two envoys held news conferences in the same room within minutes of each other but their entrances were carefully coordinated using two separate doors to avoid meeting.

Araghchi said foreign forces were fuelling a cycle of bloodshed because their presence was used to justify violence and violence was used in turn to justify their presence.

''The presence of foreign forces cannot help the security in Iraq in long-term time,'' Araghchi said. ''We need a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign forces.'' Asked about US charges that Iran was arming militant groups in Iraq, Araghchi hit out at the United States over what he called ''intelligence failure''.

In an apparent reference to US criticism of Shi'ite militias such as the Mehdi Army, which Washington has called the greatest threat to security in Iraq, Araghchi said Tehran was concerned about ''double standards towards terrorism in Iraq''.

''There are different terrorist groups in Iraq. We have no right to divide these groups to good and bad terrorists.'' Reuters DKS VP0120