SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 22 (AFP) - Iran offered Monday to establish "bilateral" security arrangements with the Iraqi interim government but stopped short of accepting US involvement as did its key Arab ally Syria, a participant in the talks told AFP.
Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said Iran was "ready to establish a bilateral mechanism of security cooperation with Iraq, as this country has said it wants," the delegate to a meeting between Iraq and its neighbours said, asking not be identified.
Iraq's caretaker administration and its US backers have long accused both Iran and Syria of failing to do enough to prevent militants from infiltrating across their borders to join a persistent insurgency.
After two days of talks in Damascus in late September, Syrian officials agreed to joint border patrols with both Iraqi and US troops although hawkish Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld later pooh-poohed the deal charging that Syria had been "notably unhelpful".
Monday's meeting between Iraq and its neighbours formed the first part of a two-day international conference on the country's political future following last year's ouster of Saddam Hussein's regime.
Ahead of the gathering, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari told AFP he wanted a security deal with Iran like that already agreed with Syria.
However Tehran has had no diplomatic relations with Washington since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution and made clear ahead of the conference that it would countenance no bilateral talks on the sidelines.
11/22/2004 19:32 GMT - AFP