BAGHDAD, March 10: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, addressing a meeting at which US officials sat down with adversaries from Iran and Syria, urged Iraq’s regional rivals on Saturday “to stop supporting militants in the country”.

Mr Maliki said Iraq needed its neighbours’ support to stem sectarian violence spilling over to other countries in the region. Two mortar rounds crashed near the conference building shortly after talks began, and a suicide car bomber killed six Iraqi soldiers and wounded about 20 others in another day of violence in the capital.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said at the end of the meeting the talks had achieved good results and that US and Iranian delegates did engage in discussions but only about their relations in Iraq.

“The meeting was constructive and positive in fact in its atmosphere and the composition,” Mr Zebari told a news conference.

“The issues discussed in the meeting were totally focused on Iraq’s security and stability.” The US ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad said US Secretary Condoleezza Rice would attend a planned ministerial meeting of regional and world powers on Iraq expected to be held in Istanbul in April.

He said he talked directly to Iranian delegates as well as in a group setting but the top Iranian official said he had no one-to-one talks with US officials during the meeting.

The conference brought together mid-level officials from Iraq’s neighbours, the permanent UN Security Council members — the US, Russia, China, Britain and France — and Arab countries. —Reuters