Iran says will decide soon on Egypt meeting

Tehran, Apr 26: Iran will announce soon whether it will take part in an international meeting in Egypt next month to discuss the conflict in Iraq, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki today said.

The meeting in early May is expected to be attended by U S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

''We will announce our point of view regarding attending the ... meeting soon,'' Mottaki said during a joint news conference with his Iraqi counterpart Hoshiyar Zebari after talks in Tehran.

The news conference was aired on an Arabic-language television station and his comments in Farsi were dubbed into Arabic.

Zebari said: ''We understand the position of the Islamic Republic of Iran and that it has not taken a final decision.'' Egypt will host the high-level meeting of a group of countries that includes Syria, Turkey and the United States in the first week of May to discuss how to stop the violence in Iraq. The conference is a follow-up to one in Baghdad in March.

An Iranian newspaper reported earlier this month that Iran might not attend if U S forces do not release five Iranians they are holding in Iraq.

Iran, which attended the March conference, had said it would decide after this week's talks with Zebari whether it would attend the meeting in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.

Reuters>