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US reverses position on Iraqi talks

In a potential policy shift, the US said on Tuesday it would join a conference with Iraq's neighbors which could see senior US officials hold direct talks with foes Iran and Syria.

President George W. Bush's administration had previously rebuffed calls from Congress, regional allies and the independent Iraq Study Group last year for a regional forum and discussions with its two arch foes on stabilizing Iraq.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said a landmark conference, expected early next month, will follow lower-level talks with regional powers plus the five permanent members of the UN Security Council in Baghdad this month.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack insisted there had been no change in US policy toward Iran, but repeatedly refused to rule out direct talks with the Iranians on the sidelines of the regional talks.

Iraqi officials said the first gathering, this month, would focus on ending sectarian violence and foreign support for rival militia and insurgents.

It will involve ambassadors and other envoys from Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey as well as Egypt, Bahrain, the Arab League and the Organization of the Islamic Conference plus the five Security Council powers -- Britain, China, France, Russia and the US.

"This initial meeting will be followed, perhaps as early as the first half of April, by a ministerial level meeting with the same invitees, plus the G8," Rice told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Analysts said that the tone and strategy of the Bush administration's regional diplomacy appeared to be shifting.

But even as the administration showed signs of flexibility, top intelligence chiefs laid out US grievances against Tehran in Iraq.

The head of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Lieutenant General Michael Maples, said that Washington had evidence that Iraqi extremists were being trained in Iran in the use of armor-piercing explosives.

The new director of national intelligence, Michael McConnell, reaffirmed US charges that the Iranian Revolutionary Guards-Quds Force was supplying Iraqi extremists with weapons.

In other developments, Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives are backing away from a plan to scale back US involvement in the Iraq war by withholding money in the budget.

Instead, party officials said on Tuesday, leaders were weighing a proposal that would attempt to embarrass Bush into abandoning his war strategy.

Under a plan discussed privately, Democrats would probably grant Bush's entire US$93.4 billion request for war spending this year but require that any troops sent into battle that do not meet certain standards or lack appropriate equipment receive a presidential waiver and that Congress be given notifice of the shortcoming.

The compromise is an attempt to please members who want to end the war immediately by cutting funding and others who do not want to appear as though they are turning their back on the troops.
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