US-Iran talks on Iraq security begin in Baghdad

BAGHDAD, July 24 (Reuters) Envoys from the United States and Iran began a second round of talks in Baghdad today on Iraq's worsening security crisis, following up on a landmark meeting in May between the two arch rivals.

Iranian ambassador Hassan Kazemi-Qomi and his US counterpart Ryan Crocker were meeting in the heavily fortified Green Zone in the Iraqi capital, Iraqi officials said.

Their talks on May 28 ended a diplomatic freeze between the two nations that had lasted almost three decades.

Washington accuses Shi'ite Muslim Iran of fomenting violence in Iraq. Iran denies the charge and blames the US-led invasion in 2003 for the bloodshed between Iraq's majority Shi'ite and minority Sunni Arabs.

The United States has been leading diplomatic efforts to isolate Iran over its nuclear ambitions but both sides have stressed that the talks in Baghdad will focus solely on the unrelenting violence in Iraq.

The precise agenda of Tuesday's talks was not immediately clear.

REUTERS SV SSC1259