BAGHDAD - Iraq has acceded to Iranian calls for additional war crimes charges against Saddam Hussein and his top aides in connection with the 1980-88 war between the two countries, the foreign ministry said Friday.
The announcement followed a visit to Baghdad earlier this week by Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi.
"Both parties agreed on the need to try former Iraqi regime leaders for war crimes, crimes against humanity and military aggression against the people of Iran, Iraq and Kuwait," said a joint statement released on the ministry's website.
Saddam and 11 senior aides in custody with him had previously only faced charges in connection with the 1990 invasion of Kuwait and operations inside Iraq against Kurdish and Shiite rebels.
It was the first time Iraq had accepted responsibility for the Iran-Iraq war, in which at least a million people are believed to have died.
The statement stressed the need for the two neighbours to put relations on a new footing and established a joint high committee chaired by Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari and Iranian Vice President Mohammed Reza Aref to oversee the development of ties.
Kharazi was the most senior Iranian official to visit since the ouster of Saddam Hussein two years ago.
His visit followed the swearing in earlier this month of a new government led by Shiites who share Iran's official religion.
In Tehran, meanwhile, the foreign ministry spokesman emphasised that despite the warming in relations the question of reparations demanded by Iran over the war between the two countries is still a live issue.
"Important matters unresolved since the war, in particular those of war reparations, are still on the agenda of the Islamic republic's government," said Hamid Reza Assefi, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
Iran has officially put the figure it claims from Iraq at around 100 billion dollars. Other Iranian sources have put the destruction as high as one trillion dollars.
Baghdad and Tehran re-established diplomatic ties last September, although many issues are still unresolved from the war.
In addition to reparations, Tehran would also like to see the repatriation of the several hundred People's Mujahedeen rebels still encamped in Iraq under US supervision. Washington says they have been disarmed and now pose no threat to the Islamic regime but the rebel group is anathema to Tehran.
For its part, Iraq has asked Tehran to return warplanes dispatched by Saddam Hussein for safe-keeping ahead of the 1991 Gulf war.
05/20/2005 14:00 GMT