Baghdad: Iran has postponed the fourth round of its meeting with the US over security in Iraq but has not given any reason for the postponement, an Iraqi Foreign Ministry source said.

"We have learned that Iran asked the Iraqi government to delay the meeting with the Americans about security in Iraq," the source said, adding that Tehran has not given a new date for the meeting. The US Embassy in Iraq was not immediately available for comment on Iran's postponement of the meeting scheduled for Friday. The US has accused Iran of aiding Iraq's Shia insurgents. But Tehran rejects the allegation.

US officials said recently that attacks involving weapons from Iran seemed to be decreasing, but training and financial support were still continuing. Last year, the two countries held two ambassador-level talks on the Iraqi security issue in May and July, and an expert-level meeting in August.

Iran has strong influence over Iraqi Shias. Relations between the two countries, which fought an eight-year war in the 1980s, have improved since the fall of Iraq's Saddam Hussein Government in 2003. Iraqi leaders have paid several visits to Iran since 2005. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on January 28 that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to visit Iraq within two months.

The postponement of US-Iran talks came two days after a senior commander of the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, Imad Moughniyah, was assassinated in a car explosion on Tuesday night in the Syrian Capital Damascus.

Source : IANS