Bombs Strike Children, US Troops in Iraq

Followers of the anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr march in a ceremony in east Baghdad's Shiite enclave of Sadr City, Iraq, Sunday, Nov. 18, 2007. Sadrists marched through Sadr City Sunday to mark the eighth anniversary of the assassination of Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq al-Sadr, a revered Shiite religious leader and the father of anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim) (Karim Kadim - AP)

He also said Iranian interference continued to be a problem for Iraq's stability.

"Make no doubt ... Iran has been the principle supplier of weapons, arms, training and funding of many militia groups," Smith told reporters. "That has not changed."

"A large number of Iranian weapons still exist here in Iraq. We do believe there are still individuals who are coordinating activities ... The degree to which Iran has ceased completely its training, equipping, financing and resourcing has yet to be witnessed or determined on the battlefield, but the trends are going in the right direction," Smith said.

U.S. and Iraqi officials have said in recent weeks that Iran appears to be honoring a commitment to stem the flow of deadly weapons to support Shiite militia fighters in Iraq, contributing to the sharp decline in violence.

But American officials tempered that optimism on Sunday, saying it was too early to determine Iran's role in the downturn.

"It's unclear to us what role the Iranians might have had in these developments, if any," said Philip T. Reeker, spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

"It's difficult to read trends in reductions," he said. "To draw direct lines from that data _ to say that there are fewer attacks and conclude that there's a particular reason for it. Vis-a-vis Iran's action _ that is something we're not yet prepared to do," Reeker said at a news conference in Baghdad's U.S.-guarded Green Zone.

Meanwhile, the Iranian Foreign Ministry on Sunday urged the Iraqi government not to follow up on the U.S. accusations.

"Since the beginning, the United States has raised baseless accusations against Iran," Mohammad Ali Hosseini, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, told reporters.

On Saturday, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said Iran was now limiting its support to fighters in Iraq, and urged Tehran and the U.S. to take advantage and hold a new round of talks on improving the situation in the wartorn country.

Since May, Iran, the U.S. and Iraq have held three rounds of talks in Baghdad.

Reeker said Sunday that he expected another round of talks soon, but no date had been set.

"That channel remains open," he told reporters.

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Associated Press writers Lauren Frayer and Sameer N. Yacoub contributed to this report.