Iran to decide on Iraq meeting on Sunday-agency

TEHRAN, Apr 29 (Reuters) Iran will announce later today whether it will attend an international meeting in Egypt this week to discuss how to stop the violence in neighbouring Iraq, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying.

Egypt will host the high-level conference on May 3-4 of a group of countries that includes Syria, Turkey and the United States. The meeting is a follow-up to one in Baghdad in March.

Relations between Iraq and Iran, both predominantly Shi'ite Muslim countries, have improved since the downfall of Saddam Hussein. But the United States accuses Tehran of fomenting instability in Iraq following the US invasion in 2003.

''Today, the fate of the issue will become clear and we will announce our decision (about the meeting),'' Mottaki told reporters, the ISNA news agency reported.

Another senior Iranian official, Ali Larijani, would visit Baghdad today for talks expected to cover the Egypt meeting and other issues, official Iranian media reported.

Iraq said yesterday it was optimistic its neighbour would attend the talks in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to which major powers and Baghdad's neighbours have been invited.

The US State Department has said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will take part and is open to direct talks with Iran over Iraq. US officials accuse Iran of supplying weapons and training to Shi'ite Muslim militias, a charge Tehran denies.

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

But Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said Iran did not want to link this with other issues, suggesting it would not prevent Iranian officials from travelling to Egypt.

REUTERS KK RK1515