The United States claimed today that Iran has "insufficiently" responded to demands it crack down on al-Qaeda and forsake nuclear arms, but said contacts with the Islamic republic would continue.
Top aides to President George W. Bush are expected to meet this Thursday to review US policy towards Iran after the war to oust Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, officials said.
The Iranian government has repeatedly denied supporting al-Qaeda and a Tehran government spokesman warned that the United States should stay out of Iranian affairs.
In response to news reports describing a toughening of US policy towards Iran, the White House and US Secretary of State Colin Powell professed, however, not to know of any change in theadministration's approach.
"Our policies with respect to Iran have not changed," Powell told reporters, adding that Washington still had serious concernsabout Tehran's support for alleged terrorist groups and its nuclear program.
Asked how Iran has responded to US pressure to end to its questfor nuclear weapons and crack down on Osama bin Laden's al-Qaedanetwork, White House spokesman Ari Fleischer replied:"Insufficiently."
Fleischer would not say specifically that direct talks betweenUS and Iranian officials, held recently in Geneva, had beensuspended, but noted that US officials had not attended a meetingscheduled for last week.
Reports have said the Bush administration cut off secret talkswith Iran because of intelligence information pointing to thepresence in the country of senior al-Qaeda members.
"These are important positions and we will not be shy aboutexpressing them," said Fleischer, who confirmed that plans for ahigh-level, interagency White House meeting to discuss policy onIran had been postponed from today.
A US official said he understood that the meeting might now takeplace on Thursday at the "principals" level and include Powell,Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and national security adviserCondoleezza Rice.
"Our policies are well known and I am not aware of any changesin policy of the kind that have been speculated about," Powell saidof the media reports.
The New York Times reported yesterday that the United States askedIran to hand over al-Qaeda members operating in its territory,following May 12 suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia that left 34dead.
The request came after US officials reviewed intelligenceindications that Iran-based al-Qaeda operatives were involved in theattacks, the Times said.
The Iranian goverenment said the United States should stay outof its internal affairs.
"We hope logic and reason will prevail in the Americans' debatesand that they will avoid taking an interventionist stance," foreignministry spokesman Hamid Reza Assefi told AFP in Tehran.
Assefi said the government did not know how true the reportswere that the United States was preparing a new hardline policyagainst the Islamic government. "We do not know to what degree thisinformation is true. But we have always told the Americans to avoidmeddling in our internal affairs."
AFP