WASHINGON, Nov 27: The Bush administration is planning a summit of like-minded nations on Iraq to counter growing influence of Iran and Syria in the Middle East, officials said.

This week the United States unleashed a burst of diplomacy activities -- from a Baltic summit of Nato partners to Mideast talks with Iraq’s prime minister – aimed at boosting President George Bush’s image which suffered greatly from election defeats at home and a sudden increase in violence in Iraq.

Just back from an eight-day trip to Asia, President Bush left on Monday on another overseas trip. He stops first in Estonia en route to a Nato summit in neighbouring Latvia, where a debate over peacekeeping operations in Afghanistan is expected to dominate.

From Latvia, the president heads to Amman, Jordan, for two days of talks with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. White House aides said at the meeting Mr Bush will sound out various parties as he ponders how to proceed in Iraq.

Arab diplomatic circles in Washington see the Bush-Maliki meeting as aimed at countering Iranian and Syrian influence in the region as both countries claim a larger role in stabilising Iraq without American involvement.

The US move also comes amid growing tensions elsewhere in the region with the assassination last week of a minister in Lebanon and more bloodletting in Gaza.

This has allowed Iran to emerge as a key player in international efforts to calm the Middle East. Even US allies, such as Jordan, are now urging Washington to involve Iran and Syria in restoring peace to the war-ravaged country.

On Sunday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that his government would be prepared to assist if the US stops `bullying’ Tehran, which rejects Washington’s allegations that it is seeking to build nuclear weapons.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani arrived in Tehran on Monday for talks aimed at securing Iran’s help in calming the sectarian violence in his country.

Last week, President Ahmadinejad proposed a summit in Tehran to discuss Iraq with his counterparts from Syria and Iraq. Both accepted the proposal but a sudden upsurge in the violence in Baghdad prevented President Talabani from leaving home for Tehran on Saturday, as originally planned.

President Bush, however, countered the Iranian proposal by announcing his own meeting with the Iraqi president in Amman later this week.

On Saturday, US Vice-President Dick Cheney made a surprise one-day visit to Saudi Arabia amid media reports that the Bush administration is trying to hold a larger summit of its allies in the Middle East to check Iran’s move to promote itself as a key player in the region.

On Monday, US newspapers reported that Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Turkey have already agreed to participate in such a summit and other US allies in the region may also join them.

But lawmakers from both Republican and Democratic parties continued to advise the Bush administration to talk to Iran and Syria as well.