US to keep nuclear issue out of talks with Iran

Washington has authorised its ambassador in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, to reach out for Iranian help to stabilise the embattled country and Tehran has since said it would be willing to discuss the problem.

"The discussions that we are prepared to conduct with authorities from Iran and our ambassador Khalilzad from Baghdad are focused on Iraq, that's the only purpose of those," said Gregory Schulte, US ambassador to the UN nuclear watchdog.

"We have no intention to open direct negotiations with Tehran on the nuclear issue," he told reporters in Brussels. "We support the European Union in their efforts to conduct negotiations."

Earlier Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that he approves of proposed talks between US and Iranian officials on Iraq, but warned that the United States must not try to "bully" Iran.

It was the first confirmation that Khamenei, who holds final say on all state matters in Iran, supports the talks. His comments appeared aimed at calming criticism by hard-liners over a major shift in policy by the regime, which long shunned high-level contacts with a country Tehran brands "the Great Satan."

President Bush said Tuesday he favours the talks and that American officials would show Iran "what's right or wrong in their activities inside of Iraq."

Khamenei said that "if the Iranian officials can make the US understand some issues about Iraq, there is no problem with the negotiations."

"But if the talks mean opening a venue for bullying and imposition by the deceitful party (the Americans), then it will be forbidden," he said in a nationally televised speech in the holy Shia city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran.