Iran postpones Iraq security talks

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 weekthe talks would take place within days -- said they were tohave been held on Friday, but were put off at the last minute.He called the Iranian postponement "unfortunate".

A U.S. embassy official said it increasingly appeared thatTehran did not want to hold the dialogue. Iranian officialswere not immediately available to comment.

Iraq later said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wouldvisit Baghdad on March 2 for talks with Iraqi Prime MinisterNuri al-Maliki and other senior officials in what would be thefirst visit by a president of the Islamic Republic.

The U.S.-Iranian security talks are one of the few forumsin which officials from the two bitter foes have directcontact. Diplomatic ties between Washington and Tehran havebeen frozen for 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 when asked about the joint talks.

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

Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh told ReutersTehran had requested a postponement of a "few more days". Healso said it was unclear why the postponement was sought.

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 was in August.

Washington has used the talks to urge Iran to stop givingweapons and training to Shi'ite militias in Iraq, includingarmour-piercing bombs known as explosively formed penetrators(EFPs) that have killed hundreds of U.S. troops.

Tehran denies the charges and blames the U.S.-led invasionof Iraq in 2003 for violence in its neighbour. Both side arealso embroiled in a row over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

U.S. SAYS IT'S READY FOR TALKS

U.S. embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo said the Iraqigovernment had informed the embassy of the postponement.

"We have been ready for weeks. We are happy to sit down forthe talks but it's increasingly clear Iran is not," she said.

Zebari said all sides saw value in the dialogue, addingIran had been helping stem violence in Iraq, partly by stoppingsome weapons coming across the border.

He also said Iran had been influential in reining in theactivities of the Mehdi Army militia of Shi'ite cleric Moqtadaal-Sadr. The anti-American cleric declared a ceasefire lastAugust that has been credited with helping cut violence.

"The number and amount of weapons and EFP technology, lessis coming across the border, according to the Americans and toour intelligence. So on these two accounts they have beenhelpful," Zebari said.

"It doesn't mean they are not interfering and notintervening. This is a friendly government to Iran and it wouldbe contradictory for them on the one hand to support thegovernment and on the other hand to support the militias."

Iran and Iraq fought an eight-year war in the 1980s inwhich hundreds of thousands were killed, but ties have improvedsince Saddam Hussein was ousted in the U.S.-led invasion ofIraq in 2003 and a Shi'ite Islamist-led government came topower.

Dabbagh said Ahmadinejad would visit Iraq for two days atthe invitation of President Jalal Talabani.

"It's significant in the sense that Iraq wants to have goodrelations with Iran (but) there should be no interference inIraq's internal affairs," Dabbagh said of the visit.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said the U.S.government wanted the two countries to have good relations.

"The fastest way for that to happen is for Iran to stopsupporting extremists in Iraq who kill innocent Iraqis andAmericans," he said in a statement.

(Additional reporting by Michael Holden in Baghdad and MattSpetalnick in Washington; Editing by Matthew Jones)