The United States announced yesterday that it would participate at an “ice-breaker” regional conference in Baghdad alongside Syria and Iran — both pariah states with whom President Bush refuses to have direct talks.

Although officials confirmed that the US was ready to attend the conference on the future of Iraq next month, there was confusion last night about whether it would sit down around a negotiating table with Syrian and Iranian diplomats.

Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, did not rule out bilateral contact, saying: “We’ll see. The focus is on Iraq. The Iraqi Government is convening the meeting. We look forward to attending it. At this point I’m not going to try to predict what direction the discussions might take, the interactions might take.”

The White House played down the prospect of direct, as against indirect, contact, however. The press secretary, Tony Snow, reiterated that strict conditions had been set for discussions with either regime, but added: “We hope and expect that Iran and Syria will play constructive roles in [the] talks.”

The meeting, which the Iraqi Government said would be an “ice-breaker” for Western and regional powers, is unlikely to have been convened without at least the tacit approval of the Bush Administration.

It will include representatives from all Iraq’s neighbours, as well as the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Hoshiyar Zebari, the Iraqi Foreign Minister, said: “We want Iraq, instead of being a divisive issue, to be a unifying issue.” He added that his Government hoped all parties would “meet together in one room”.

Sami al-Askri, an MP and adviser to Nouri al-Maliki, the Prime Minister, said: “We are keen for Washington and Iran to solve their problems.” The first such meeting since the fall of Saddam Hussein would “give Washington the chance to see Iran and Syria without any concern from home”.

Britain also welcomed the announcement. “The UK has urged Iraq’s neighbours to engage positively to help Iraq make progress and we look forward to playing our part in making a success of the meeting,” the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said.

Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, told Congress that Iraq also planned to convene a second conference, at ministerial level, with neighbouring states in April to which the G8 group of developed countries would be invited.

“I’m pleased to inform you that the Iraqis are launching a new diplomatic initiative that we fully support,” she said. “The Iraqi Government has invited Syria and Iran to attend both of these regional meetings. We hope these governments seize this opportunity to improve their relations with Iraq — and to work for peace and stability in the region.”

The meetings take place amid growing concern that Iraq’s sectarian conflict is threatening to spill over into the region, where Sunni-led states allied to Washington fear Iran’s growing influence with Iraq’s Shia majority and militia.

Mr Bush has failed to heed pleas, both from Tony Blair and more recently the Independent Iraq Study Group, for America to open direct negotiations with Iran and Syria, which he has branded as state sponsors of terrorism. Mr Bush has ruled out talks with Iran until it has halted the uranium enrichment programme which the US claims is cover for a nuclear weapons programme.

Mr McCormack said Washington would likely be represented at the meeting by its ambassador to Baghdad and possibly by David Satterfield, Dr Rice’s special adviser on Iraq. But he insisted that the talks would focus on the future of Iraq and not include other questions, such as the nuclear stand-off with Iran.

The US, which has recently sent two aircraft carriers to the region, has stoked fears of a military clash by highlighting the shipment of Iranian weapons across the border into Iraq.

Admiral Michael McConnell, the new director of US national intelligence, yesterday identified Iran as a rising threat to American security. “This is a very dangerous situation,” he said. “We estimate that Iran could produce a nuclear weapon by early to mid next decade.”

In the latest violence in Iraq, 12 children and 6 women were killed in the city of Ramadi in what the Government described as a bomb attack. A tribal leader said earlier that a suicide car bomb killed at least 18 children. But the US military offered a contradictory account, saying it had no knowledge of a bombing in Ramadi, and that it had detonated explosives found in the city, accidentally wounding 30 people.

Baghdad’s day

— Iraqi Army special forces backed by US military advisers detained 16 suspected militiamen in the northeastern Sadr City district of Baghdad in operations against what the US military called “rogue” Mehdi Army militia cells

— Three US soldiers were killed and one wounded when a roadside bomb exploded on the outskirts of Baghdad

— A car bomb that exploded in the predominantly Shia district of Karrada killed five people and wounded ten

— Another car bomb that exploded in the district killed two people and wounded four

— A roadside bomb in Tayaran Square, in the city’s centre, killed two people and wounded 11

— A bomb wounded three policemen in Zayouna in the city’s eastern suburbs

— Mortars killed three people and wounded six in Wehde, south of Baghdad

Source: Reuters

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