BAGHDAD, April 29: A spokesman for Iraq’s president denied a media report on Saturday that quoted the head of state as saying US and Iranian officials had held talks on Iraq.

Iraq’s independent Sharqiya television channel said Jalal Talabani told writers at a cultural festival that US-Iranian talks ‘dedicated to the Iraq issue’ took place ‘a while ago’ in the Kurdish lakeside resort of Dukan, in northern Iraq.

“That meeting never took place,” presidential spokesman Kameran Qaradaghi said.

A US embassy spokeswoman said she was unaware of any such meeting. Iranian officials made no immediate comment.

Iranian and US officials have said in the past that they would hold talks to discuss Iraq.

Both sides, which have not had diplomatic relations since Iran’s 1979 revolution, have said any such talks would only cover Iraq and have yet to decide on how and where discussions might take place.

Some analysts said they could open a conduit for discussion of other issues, particularly the dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme. —Reuters