TEHRAN, Sept 1: Key US ally Turkey and long time foe Iran said here on Sunday they wanted Washington to resolve its differences with Iraq through “peaceful means”, rejecting US plans to strike the country.

Washington’s crisis with Iraq over its weapons of mass destruction “must be resolved through peaceful means,” Turkish Foreign Minister Sukru Sina Gurel said quoted by Iranian state television.

“Any change must be decided by the Iraqi people,” he said, in a veiled reference to US President George W. Bush’s promises to oust the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Gurel was the fourth top diplomat of a pro-Western state in as many weeks to beat a path to Tehran to voice opposition to US Iraq policy.

His Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi reiterated opposition to US plans to strike Baghdad, but criticized Iraq for being “unpredictable” in its actions.

“The Iraqi regime is unpredictable and over the past two decades has caused much damage to countries in the region,” Kharazi said, a reference to the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988 and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

But “this should not justify any interference in the affairs of Iraq,” he added, saying “consultations between Turkey and Iran as well as other countries neighbouring Iraq can be very effective in preventing a bigger crisis in the future”, he added.

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami during his talks with Gurel, meanwhile, stressed the two countries’ “identical views” on regional stability, the president’s office said.

“Cooperation between Iran and Turkey contributes to the economic progress and helps to maintain the security and stability in both countries as well as other countries in Central Asia and Caucasus,” the statement said.

For his part, the Turkish foreign minister renewed an invitation from Turkish president Ahmet Necdet Sezer, for Khatami to participate in a summit of Economic Co-operation Organisation (ECO) on October 14 in Turkey.

Gurel’s trip to Tehran, which kicked off Saturday, followed visits last month by diplomats from the pro-Western Gulf states of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Oman, in a regional display of solidarity to express misgivings about US military action against Iraq.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal expressed his concern in Tehran in early August to “threats against Iraq” saying “if aggression against one country becomes a habit, no government or country will be spared.”

At the time, Khatami called for “regional cooperation between Iraq’s neighbouring countries to encourage it to adhere to UN resolutions.”

However, rhetoric from Washington has not subsided with Bush telling a visiting Saudi diplomat last week that Saddam was “a menace to regional peace”.

Washington has accused the Iraqi president of developing weapons of mass destruction, but has said no decision has been taken on the means to use against it.

On his arrival here, Gurel said Ankara and Tehran held “identical views on regional and international problems.”

Iran has repeatedly spoken out against any US strike aimed at overthrowing Saddam but gave the green light to the participation of a Tehran-based Iraqi opposition group in an August 10 meeting with US officials in Washington.

Ankara fears that a war in Iraq could exacerbate its economic woes and result in the establishment of an independent Kurdish state in northern Iraq, rekindling tensions among its own Kurdish community.

On the bilateral level, Iran has had its difficulties with Turkey, which accuses it of sheltering members of the rebel Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Tehran denies the charge.—AFP