Iran and Us to Hold Iraq Talks

Iran and the US are to hold ambassadorial level talks on Iraq, the Iranian foreign minister said today, in the first substantive contacts between the countries for years.

"Negotiation is limited to Iraq, in Iraq, and will start in the presence of Iraqi officials," Manouchehr Mottaki told a news conference in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, where he has been attending a ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference.

The US ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, is to lead the American side and Mr Mottaki said Iran would send "one of its senior diplomats; at the level of ambassador as its chief negotiator."

The US has been pushing for high-level talks with Iran for months, as George Bush's administration faces increasing domestic pressure to start pulling out its forces from Iraq this year.

An expected meeting between US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Mr Mottaki at a conference in Egypt earlier this month failed to materialize, as the two clashed publicly over Iraq and Tehran's nuclear program.

The US and Iran have been diplomatically estranged since 1979, when Iranian revolutionary guards stormed the US in Tehran, triggering a prolonged hostage crisis.

In 2002, President Bush famously named Iran as part of the "axis of evil".

But the US has been forced to take a more pragmatic attitude with Iran, as the White House needs as much help as it can to extricate itself from Iraq.

The US has accused Iran of providing Shia extremists with sophisticated explosive devices that have proved particularly deadly for American troops.

Announcement of the US-Iran meeting came as the international affairs thinktank Chatham House in London warned that Iraq is on the verge of being a failed state, which faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation.

In a briefing paper, Accepting Realities in Iraq, Dr Gareth Stansfield said: "The coming year will be pivotal for Iraq.

"The internecine fighting and continual struggle for power threatens the nation's very existence in its current form. An acceptance of the realities on the ground in Iraq and a fundamental rethinking of strategy by coalition powers are vital if there is to be any chance of future political stability in the country."

Dr Stansfield argues the Iraqi government must find Sunni Arab representatives to take part in the government, recognize Moqtada al-Sadr as a legitimate political partner and be more responsive to Kurdish concerns.