Rice open to bilateral talks with Iran at meeting

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is open to direct talks with Iran over its role in Iraq when she attends a meeting of Iraq's neighbours and world powers, the State Department said on Thursday.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice did not rule out bilateral talks with the Iranians at the ministerial-level meeting, which Iraq's government says is likely early next month at an as-yet undisclosed location.

"We will not exclude any particular diplomatic interaction. There was one at the envoys level ... and the same would hold true for the secretary," McCormack told reporters.

At a meeting in Baghdad last month of Iraq's neighbours, then U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, had brief encounters with both Iranian and Syrian delegates at the talks and McCormack said it was possible Rice could do the same.

The United States accuses Iran of destabilising Iraq and McCormack said Rice could raise this with Tehran at the Iraq conference, expected to be attended by Iraq's neighbours as well as world powers. Iran denies meddling in Iraq.

But McCormack reiterated the U.S. position that when it came to discussing Iran's nuclear program, Washington would only meet with Tehran once it had suspended its sensitive uranium enrichment work.

The United States has welcomed Iran's decision to free 15 British sailors seized last month and who returned home on Thursday, but says this decision has no impact on nuclear negotiations unless Tehran gives up enrichment.

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