Rice open to bilateral talks with Iran at meeting : By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is open to direct talks with Iran over its role in Iraq when she attends a meeting of Iraq's neighbours and world powers, the State Department said on Thursday.State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice did not rule out bilateral talks with the Iranians at the ministerial-level meeting, which Iraq's government says is likely early next month at an as-yet undisclosed location."We will not exclude any particular diplomatic interaction. There was one at the envoys level ... and the same would hold true for the secretary," McCormack told reporters.At a meeting in Baghdad last month of Iraq's neighbours, then U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, had brief encounters with both Iranian and Syrian delegates at the talks and McCormack said it was possible Rice could do the same.The United States accuses Iran of destabilising Iraq and McCormack said Rice could raise this with Tehran at the Iraq conference, expected to be attended by Iraq's neighbours as well as world powers. Iran denies meddling in Iraq.But McCormack reiterated the U.S. position that when it came to discussing Iran's nuclear program, Washington would only meet with Tehran once it had suspended its sensitive uranium enrichment work.The United States has welcomed Iran's decision to free 15 British sailors seized last month and who returned home on Thursday, but says this decision has no impact on nuclear negotiations unless Tehran gives up enrichment.
BRITISH SAILORS
Asked whether the release of the British sailors could lead in future to direct talks between Washington and Tehran, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said he did not see any link between the two."I would simply say, as I did before, the motives of those who took the sailors, who authorised the taking of the sailors, who moved the sailors to Tehran and the decision to release them are unknown to us at this point," he told reporters at the Pentagon.In Crawford, Texas, President George W. Bush held an hour-long video conference call with British Prime Minister Tony Blair during which Bush commended the British "on their resolve in bringing the situation to a peaceful resolution," said White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe.Johndroe said the hope now was that Iran will move forward with complying with U.N. Security Council resolutions aimed at stopping enrichment.McCormack also said he hoped Iran's release of the British sailors would lead to a "change of heart" on behalf of Tehran on other issues, including their nuclear program.The United States and others accuse Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb but Tehran says its program is for peaceful power purposes.
FIVE DETAINEES
The United States has since January been holding five Iranians whom Washington accuses of being linked to attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq.McCormack said the United States was considering a request from Iran for consular access to the five, who he said were classified as "security detainees" and were being held under Iraqi law and according to U.N. Security Council resolutions."That is being taken under advisement," he said of the Iranian request, adding that the International Committee of the Red Cross had already been granted visits to the detainees.McCormack said consular access had been allowed on previous occasions to such detainees on a "case by case" basis but a decision had not yet been taken on the five.Gates said he did not believe consular access was required for the five and there might be "some other means" by which access might be given. He did not elaborate."I think there's no inclination right now to let them go," Gates said.