Iran says U.S. requests new talks on Iraq security

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Monday it had received a request from the United States, its old foe, for a new round of talks on ways to improve security in Iraq and was considering it.

Easing a diplomatic freeze lasting almost three decades, Iranian and U.S. officials met three times in Baghdad last year, but a planned fourth meeting has been repeatedly postponed.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry also voiced support for Iraq's U.S.-backed prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, in his crackdown on militia and suggested Tehran had played a role in efforts to end fighting in its neighbour last month.

Maliki's action was aimed at "confronting illegal armed groups" and this was in the interest of Iraq and its neighbours, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said.

But he hit out at the role of U.S. forces during the fighting, blaming them for the deaths of civilians.

He was speaking as Maliki raised the stakes in his showdown with followers of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, saying they would be barred from elections unless their militia disbands.

Iraqi security forces on Sunday launched raids into the cleric's Baghdad stronghold, bringing heavy fighting back to the capital after a week of relative calm when Sadr called his militia off the streets there and in Iraq's south.

Shi'ite Iran's influence in Iraq has grown since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003 toppled Sunni Arab strongman Saddam Hussein and ushered in a Shi'ite-led government in Baghdad.

The United States accuses Iran of stoking violence in Iraq by training and equipping Iraqi militants. Iran denies this and blames the presence of U.S. troops for the bloodshed.