Tehran: The United States has made a formal request to Iran to help ease mounting violence in Iraq and Tehran is now making an effort to mediate in the conflict, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi said today (Apr 14, 2004).

"There has been a lot of correspondence. Regarding Iraq, there has also been a lot of exchanges of correspondence," Kharazi told reporters when asked of the current state of relations with the United States.

"Naturally, there was a request for our help in improving the situation in Iraq and solving the crisis, and we are making efforts in this regard," the Minister said after a Cabinet meeting.

He added that exchanges of communications between Washington and Tehran continued to be made through the Swiss embassy of Teheran. Iran and the US cut off diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution here.

Kharazi's comments came after the official news agency IRNA said a top foreign ministry official had been sent to Iraq today for talks with coalition officials, Iraqi politicians and religious figures.

The foreign ministry's director for Gulf affairs, Hossein Sadeghi, left for the Iraqi capital to "examine events there and to look into finding the means to solve the crisis," IRNA said.