Iran considering fresh US talks on Iraq

TEHRAN: Iran is considering an Iraqi request for fresh talks with arch-foe United States on security in the war-torn country, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Monday.

"We are considering the request from Iraqi officials and we will give our response once we've finished our considerations," Mottaki was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.

"These considerations will take another week or two."

Iran and the United States on May 28 held their highest-level public contacts in 27 years, with Tehran calling for US troops to be pulled out of Iraq and Washington accusing Iran of stoking the insurgency.

However, the talks in Baghdad between Iranian ambassador to Iraq Hassan Kazemi Qomi and his US counterpart Ryan Crocer on Iraq's security appeared to achieve no major breakthrough.

Mottaki last week appeared to express readiness to continue the talks, during a visit to Tehran by Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Barhm Saleh.

The May talks only aimed at restoring security to Iraq and did not veer in to other contentious issues such as Iran's nuclear programme and the wider situation in the Middle East.

Relations have been chilled further by the detention in Iraq by US forces of at least five Iranian officials who Tehran insists are diplomats.

The United States severed relations with Iran in 1980 after Islamic revolutionary students took over its embassy in Tehran, and any exchanges since then have normally been marked by mutual animosity.