Special report:Tension escalates in Iraq

    TEHRAN, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) -- Iran said on Tuesday it was ready to consider any official request to talk with the United States on Iraq issue but would not guarantee to accept it.

    "To examine a request, and to accept it are two different things, we are ready to consider any request about talks but it doesn't mean we must accept," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters said at a joint press conference with his Palestinian counterpart Mahmoud Zahar.

    "In order to help stabilize Iraq, some Iraqi officials have asked for negotiations between Iran and the U.S., we accepted. But due to the bad character of the U.S. and its desire to make propaganda, we cancelled it," Mottaki explained.

    The White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten has said that the U.S. President George W. Bush would consider all options presented to him by a panel of advisers called the Iraq Study Group.

    The group was believed to favor renewing contacts with both Damascus and Tehran.

    On Monday, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said if the U.S. wants to hold talks with Iran, the U.S. administration should officially propose it to Iran who then would review it.

    Moves by the U.S. to start talks with Iran in Baghdad to promote peace in Iraq earlier this year came to nothing amid mutual recriminations, despite initial cautious expressions of acceptance.