IRAN:Iran is taking steps to greatly expand its military and economic ties with Iraq, Tehran's ambassador to Iraq said in an interview in yesterday's New York Times.
The ambassador, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, said Iran was prepared to offer Iraqi forces training, equipment and advisers for "the security fight" and was ready to assume major responsibility for the reconstruction of Iraq.
He also acknowledged for the first time that two Iranians detained last month by US forces were security officials, as the United States had claimed.
"They worked in the security sector in the Islamic Republic, that's clear," Mr Qomi said in a 90-minute interview at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad. The Iranians were in Iraq because "the two countries agreed to solve the security problems", the ambassador said.
Mr Qomi said the Iranians should not have been detained and he ridiculed a US military claim to have evidence proving the Iranians were involved in planning attacks on American and Iraqi forces.
Mr Qomi also announced that Iran would soon open a national bank in Baghdad. An Iraqi banking official confirmed that Iran had received a licence to open what would be the first "wholly-owned subsidiary bank" of a foreign country in Iraq, the newspaper reported.
US forces this month detained five more Iranians in a raid on a diplomatic office in the northern city of Arbil.
The United States has accused Iran of helping arm, train and fund Iraqi militants, notably fellow Shia Muslims.
President Bush said on Friday that US forces in Iraq had the authority to protect themselves against Iranians attempting to launch attacks.
State department spokesman Sean McCormack told the New York Timesthat the United States had a significant body of evidence tying Iran to sectarian attacks inside Iraq.
"There is a high degree of confidence in the information that we already have, and we are constantly accumulating more," Mr McCormack said.
The report said Mr McCormack did not specifically address Mr Qomi's comments about plans for stronger ties with Iraq, but said Iran currently played "a negative role in many respects" in the country.