Keep your quarrels out of Iraq talks, rivals told

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· Foreign minister calls for security to be only subject
· US forces suffer 10 fatalities in two days

Iraq must not become a crucible for confrontation between the US and its regional foes Iran and Syria, the foreign minister Hoshyar Zebari warned yesterday, adding that Iraq's security should be the "only issue on the agenda" of a major international conference aimed at finding ways to stabilise the strife-torn country.

"We are saying keep your quarrels and fights away; we have enough on our plate," Mr Zebari said in an interview with the Guardian. "We are getting caught in the middle and the tensions are affecting us immediately and directly."

The foreign minister announced at the weekend that Iraq's neighbours, the five permanent members of the UN security council and the G8 group of industrialised countries would meet in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on May 3 to discuss the security situation in Iraq. US officials have said that US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, will attend.

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Mr Zebari said the conference had taken on even more importance after the crisis over the Iranian seizure of the British sailors in the Shatt al-Arab waterway between Iraq and Iran. "It worsened the atmosphere between the US, Britain and Iran, and that is a concern for us at this vital time," he said. The US-Iraqi security plan needed to be "supported and not undermined" if national unity and reconciliation were to mean "more than words on paper".



http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2053044,00.html