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Global

Iran plays down Paris meeting it attended with USA


    TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran played down on Saturday the significance of an international anti-money laundering meeting in Paris that both the Islamic Republic and its old foe the United States attended.

    U.S. officials said on Friday that a senior U.S. Treasuryofficial met Iranian representatives in Paris on January 24 aspart of a gathering to discuss "terror financing", in adeparture from Washington's usual policy.

    Senior Treasury Department official Daniel Glaser was givenpermission by the Bush administration to attend the meeting, asrequired by U.S. policy because contacts with Iran are usuallyforbidden, said a senior U.S. official in Washington.

    Iranian Economy Minister Davoud Danesh-Jafari told ReutersIranian officials had been invited to the meeting of theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF), a 34-nation group set up tofight money laundering and terrorist financing.

    "They invited Iranian officials to see what is being donein Iran in regards to this issue (money laundering) ... Therewas an exchange of views about this issue," he told reporterson the sidelines of an Islamic banking conference in Tehran.

    Two Iranian officials attended the gathering, one from thecentral bank and one from his ministry, Danesh-Jafari said.

    It had "not been a special meeting ... the meeting was notat a senior level," he added.

    "There is supposed to be another seminar in the next one ortwo months and we will probably take part in that,"Danesh-Jafari said. Iran is not a member of the FATF.

    He did not mention the presence of U.S. officials.

    The U.S. official in Washington said that "to my knowledge,they did not have one-on-one meetings with the Iranians."

    Last October, the FATF said it was concerned about Iran's"lack of a comprehensive anti-money laundering/combating thefinancing of terrorism regime" and urged it to tackle theproblem. Iran denies U.S. accusations it is sponsoringterrorism.

    Washington severed ties with Iran shortly after its 1979Islamic Revolution and the two countries are now embroiled in astandoff over Tehran's nuclear programme, which the West fearsis aimed at making bombs. Tehran denies the charge.

    Easing the decades-long diplomatic freeze, the two sideshave held three round of talks in Baghdad since May onimproving security in Iraq. But Iraqi officials said this weekthat Iran had postponed a further meeting scheduled for lastFriday.

    (Reporting by Hossein Jaseb; writing by Fredrik Dahl;editing by Tim Pearce)