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M. Continuo

Iran postpones Iraq security talks


    By Dean Yates and Sean Maguire

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran has postponed a fourth round oftalks with the United States in Baghdad on improving securityin Iraq, giving no reason for the delay, Iraqi Foreign MinisterHoshiyar Zebari said on Thursday.

    Zebari -- who announced during a trip to Moscow this weekthat the talks would take place within days -- said they wereto have been held on Friday, but were put off at the lastminute. He called the Iranian postponement "unfortunate".

    The U.S.-Iranian security talks are one of the few forumsin which officials from the two countries have direct contact.Diplomatic ties between Washington and Iran have been frozenfor almost three decades.

    "Yesterday we were informed that the Iranians want topostpone this for some time, for some unknown reason," Zebaritold Reuters in an interview.

    "This is the fourth time that we agreed on a date and theydon't show up."

    U.S. and Iranian officials met three times last year toseek common ground on stabilising Iraq in talks arranged by theBaghdad government.

    The last time they met under this mechanism was in Augustwhen a security committee held talks.

    Washington has used the talks to urge Iran to stop givingweapons and training to Shi'ite militias in Iraq, includingsophisticated bombs and missiles used to kill U.S. troops.

    Tehran denies the charges and blames the U.S.-led invasionof Iraq in 2003 for the violence.

    The two countries are also embroiled in a row over Tehran'snuclear ambitions.

    Iran's foreign ministry said it had no immediate comment onthe postponement.

    The country's ISNA news agency had quoted an unnamedIranian official this week as saying that the negotiationswould most probably take place on Saturday or Sunday inBaghdad.

    The U.S. embassy also had no immediate comment.

    Washington complains bitterly that Iran gives Shi'itemilitias deadly armour-piercing bombs known as explosivelyformed penetrators (EFPs) that have killed hundreds of Americantroops.

    Tensions also spiked last month between Iran and the UnitedStates after Washington said its warships were threatened byIranian craft in the Strait of Hormuz.

    (Editing by Sean Maguire)