In Shift, U.S., Iran Meet On Iraq

An hour after the mortar attack, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki urged the country's neighbors in his opening remarks to stop financing attacks and funneling weapons and fighters across their borders.

Iraq "will not accept that its lands, cities and streets be an arena for inter-regional or regional-international disputes," Maliki said. "It does not accept by any means to be a theater for influence of any state or for regional or international power-sharing."

Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said the countries to which Maliki was referring were all represented at the conference.

Many of Iraq's neighbors had pressing reasons to attend. Syria and Jordan are hosting large numbers of Iraqi refugees. Turkey, with its restive Kurdish minority, is worried about cross-border attacks by Iraqi Kurdish guerrillas. Saudi Arabia is concerned that the conflict could propel its Shiite minority to rise up, a reason analysts say the kingdom has done little to aid Iraq.

The interaction among delegates from the United States, Iran and Syria were closely watched by those attending the conference. The United States and Iraq have accused Syria of allowing insurgents to cross its borders and attack targets in Iraq, an allegation the Syrian government has denied.

Khalilzad, in a subsequent telephone interview with reporters, said U.S. officials had had brief discussions with the Syrians on Saturday. The Syrians "did not respond directly" to U.S. concerns but pledged to support Iraq in a statement issued at the meeting, Khalilzad said.

In recent months, the Bush administration has zeroed in on Iran, not only because of concerns about its nuclear ambitions but also on the premise that it is destabilizing Iraq. U.S. military officials have alleged that Iran is backing Shiite militias with financing and weapons, including sophisticated roadside bombs that have killed U.S. soldiers.

Iraq's Shiite-led government has expressed deep concerns about becoming a battleground for its two allies, both of whom have significant influence. "We don't want to pay any price for any problems between the two countries," said Ali Dabbagh, an Iraqi government spokesman.

Khalilzad said he discussed with the Iranians cross-border weapons transfers and "money, training, support for militias, and other illegal armed groups."

"Nobody was pounding the table," Khalilzad said. "The exchanges were quite, I would say, ordinary. There were frank and sometimes even jovial exchanges."

On that, Araghchi agreed.

"The meeting in general was constructive, taking place in a very good environment," he said. "But it doesn't mean we didn't raise our concerns about what's going on in Iraq."

Khalilzad said he was cautiously optimistic about his Iranian counterparts.

"They want the government to succeed, they want national reconciliation, they want a close to violence and terror," he said. "Those are good words, welcome words, but we will have to wait and see what happens on the ground."

By the end of the conference, the delegates had agreed to form three working groups composed of representatives from Iraq's neighbors and to hold a second regional meeting as early as next month. The three groups would look at such issues as security, refugees, and fuel and energy supplies, Zebari said.

Also Saturday, the Associated Press released a video made by insurgents purportedly showing a German woman and her son who were kidnapped in Iraq last month. The woman, who appears to be weeping in the video, said the kidnappers had declared that they would kill them if German troops were not withdrawn from Afghanistan.

Germany has confirmed that two of its citizens disappeared in Iraq last month but has not publicly identified them or disclosed what efforts were being made to secure their release.

Staff writer Ernesto Londoño and special correspondent K.I. Ibrahim in Baghdad and staff writer Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.