Iran to hold Iraq talks with US

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/7235459.stm

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Iran is to hold talks with the US on ending the violence in Iraq, an Iranian minister has announced.

The talks are set to take place after 12 February, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki said.

Three previous sessions have all ended in deadlock, with both sides blaming the other for the continued fighting.

The US accuses Iran of encouraging radical Shia groups in Iraq, while Iran blames the violence on the prolonged presence of US troops in the country.

No progress

US ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi Qomi held talks in May and July last year, the highest level public contacts between the two countries for 27 years.

Senior officials from both countries also met in Baghdad in August.

But all three meetings ended without progress, and violence in Iraq - while at a lower level than it was in 2006 - continues.

In November the US blamed Iranian-backed militants for a bomb attack on a pet market in Baghdad that killed some 13 people.