Iran postpones talks with U.S. on Iraq

The clash between Washington and Tehran came as the Iraqi government announced that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad would arrive March 2 for a two-day visit, the first such trip by an Iranian leader since the two countries fought a devastating war in the 1980s that killed or injured an estimated 1 million people.

The United States and Iran, already locked in a dispute over Tehran's nuclear program, have long traded blame for the bloodshed in Iraq. But U.S. officials softened their tone late last year, backing away from sweeping accusations that Iran is orchestrating the funding, training and equipping of Shiite Muslim militants who have battled U.S. soldiers here.

The U.S. military freed a number of Iranian detainees it said no longer posed a threat. And U.S. officials held several meetings with their Iranian counterparts, ending a diplomatic freeze that had lasted nearly three decades.

The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, has noted that the number of attacks involving sophisticated armor-piercing rounds, which U.S. officials alleged were supplied by Iran, declined last summer. But he also has said that such assaults have inched back up in recent months.

The three sides agreed last fall to meet again in December. But Iraqi officials who are hosting the dialogue said they were unable to persuade Iran to commit to a date, and the meeting still hasn't been held.

"My understanding was that there was an agreement to meet on Friday, but we have been informed that Iran postponed the meeting," Mirembe Nantongo, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Iraq, said today. "We have been saying for weeks that we are ready to sit down and talk, and it has become increasingly clear that the Iranians are not."

Separately, the outgoing U.S. commander of day-to-day operations in Iraq warned today that Shiite extremists were trying to reinsert themselves into Baghdad with the help of Iran and "create some chaos."

"I think they are still funded by Iran. I think there is still training that goes on with these groups. They might have slowed the flow of weapons but there are still weapons flowing," Army Lt. Gen. Raymond T. Odierno told reporters after handing the command of the Multinational Corps-Iraq to Army Lt. Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, commander of the 18th Airborne Corps, from Fort Bragg, N.C.

"I think Iran wants a weak Iraq," Odierno said. "And we've got to realize that and the Iraqi government has got to realize that."

Iranian officials, who have repeatedly denied the U.S. accusations, were not immediately available to comment today. They blame the bloodshed in Iraq on the presence of U.S. forces.

alexandra.zavis@latimes.com