Iran's president said on Tuesday he was ready to talk to the United States if there was a change of attitude in Washington, which faces pressure to deal directly with Tehran to help ease violence in Iraq.
Washington is leading efforts to press for United Nations sanctions on Iran over its nuclear work, but is also conducting a review of its policies in Iraq which is expected to recommend the administration engage with the Iran and Syria. "We have said from the beginning that we will talk with the American government, but under conditions," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a news conference.
"The conditions concern the attitude of the American government. If they correct their behaviour, we will talk to them like others," he said.
Iranian officials have often said they were ready for talks with the United States, but have always made negotiations conditional on radical US policy changes. Ahmadinejad said he would soon send a message to the American people to explain his policies.
"Many of the American people have asked me to talk to them and explain the opinion of the Iranian nation. Soon it will happen and I am going to send them a message," he said.
The conservative president gave no details of the message. Ahmadinejad sent an 18-page letter to US President George W. Bush in May criticising American policies, but received no formal reply. Bush described it as "interesting". Washington broke ties with Tehran after Iranian students stormed the US embassy in Iran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Tehran and Washington have come close to holding direct talks before and looked to have agreed in March to meet on Iraq, but Ahmadinejad said in April there was no need for a dialogue.
Under Iran's complex political system, Ahmadinejad's government is in charge of day-to-day running of the country, while Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has the last word on matters of state such as whether to hold talks with Washington.
US ally British Prime Minister Tony Blair is among those promoting US engagement with Syria and Iran over Iraq, an idea under discussion by the Iraq Study Group - commissioned by US President George W. Bush to review policy in Iraq.
BAKER, ZARIF MEETING: James Baker, a Republican and former US secretary of state who chairs the Iraq Study Group with Democratic Representative Lee Hamilton, had a three-hour dinner in New York with Iran's UN ambassador Javad Zarif, the Washington Post said on Sunday.
The US newspaper, which did not say when the dinner took place, said: "Baker made clear that he was not negotiating for the United States but that the commission wanted Iran's input and suggestions."
Hamid Reza Haji Babaee, a member of the Iranian parliament's national security committee, described the meeting as "the beginning of negotiations" with America, the Iranian Web site Aftab reported. Other members of parliament played down the significance.
Last month, the US ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said "foreign rivals" such as Iran and Syria were trying to tear the Iraqi people apart along sectarian lines.