NEW YORK, Nov 28: US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad has said that he has received explicit permission from President Bush to begin a diplomatic dialogue with Iran to help secure Iraq after US troops’ pullout in phases. In an interview with the Newsweek magazine Mr Khalilzad said: “I’ve been authorized by the president to engage Iranians as I engaged them in Afghanistan directly.”

“There will be meetings, and that’s also a departure and an adjustment,” he said.

President Bush is under intense bi-partisan pressure to define a clear period to withdraw from Iraq, as the country spirals into violent confrontations between the coalition troops and the so-called insurgents. Mounting American causalities have undermined Mr Bush’s approval ratings, according to latest poll results.

In the interview, Mr Khalilzad warned of the dangers of a panicky pullout of US troops could bring the region.

“If we were to do a premature withdrawal, there could be a Shia-Sunni war here that could spread beyond Iraq. And you could have Iran backing the Shias and Sunni Arab states backing the Sunnis. You could have a regional war that could go on for a very long time, and affect the security of oil supplies,” Mr Khalilzad said.