July 24, 2007	Tuesday	Rajab 08, 1428

BAGHDAD: Arch foes the United States and Iran are to hold fresh talks in Baghdad on Tuesday on the security situation in Iraq, marking only their second one-on-one encounter in 27 years.

The meeting, to be attended also by an Iraqi delegation, has been confirmed by officials in all three camps.

As with a first round of talks on May 28 — their first since Washington broke off relations with Tehran in 1980 — the US will be represented by its Ambassador to Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, while Tehran's envoy Hassan Kazemi Qomi will head the Iranian delegation.

“After my meeting with the Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, tomorrow's meeting was confirmed,” Qomi was quoted as saying on the website of Iran's state-run television.

“An Iraqi delegation will be in our meeting with the American delegation, during which ways to seek stability and security in Iraq will be discussed,” he added.

Spokesman for the US mission in Baghdad Philip Reeker confirmed the meeting, which was first announced late on Sunday by Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

Washington broke off relations with Tehran in 1980 after Islamic revolutionaries seized the US embassy in Tehran and held its diplomats hostage for 444 days.

A first ice-breaking meeting between the two sides on May 28 did not achieve any major breakthrough and was strictly limited to the security situation in Iraq.

Both sides stuck to their familiar positions, with Tehran calling for US troops to be pulled out and Washington accusing Iran of stoking the insurgency that is bedevilling Iraq.

Reeker said the meeting on Tuesday would also be strictly “about Iraq.” The two countries remain at loggerheads over a range of issues including Iran's nuclear programme, which the United States claims is aimed at producing nuclear weapons, an accusation fiercely denied by Tehran.

And on Sunday the US military levied fresh charges against Tehran, saying that Iranian agents continued to smuggle Iranian made armour piercing bombs — explosively-formed penetraters (EFPs) — to Iraqi extremists.

Since May 2004, when the EFPs emerged on the Iraqi battlefield, more than 200 US soldiers have been killed by these bombs which fire a fist-sized chunk of molten metal that can cut through even a heavily armoured vehicle.

Tehran denies being behind any weapons smuggling.

Given the acrimonious backdrop, Iraqi lawmakers were divided in their expectations of Tuesday's meeting. “Nothing much is expected from the US-Iran meeting,” said lawmaker Mahmud Othman, a Kurd.

“US wants Iran to keep off Iraq and Iran wants US to leave Iraq. Each side has its own agenda,” he said.

“Iraqis are insisting on such meetings because they themselves have failed to solve the problem. But Iraq's problems can be solved only by the Iraqis. They should work together.” Iraq's Shia leaders, known for their close links with Iran, said the meeting was a positive step.—AFP