Special report: Tension escalates in Iraq

    ANKARA, April 17 (Xinhua) -- Turkish Foreign Minister AbdullahGul and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki held talks on Tuesday before a meeting of Iraq's neighbors to take place in Egypt on May 4, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

    Mottaki, who arrived in the Turkish capital on Tuesday morning on a working trip, is in Turkey to discuss recent developments regarding Iraq and Iran, diplomatic sources were quoted as saying.

    According to the sources, Mottaki will visit one or two more countries before Iraq's neighbors meet in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on May 4.

    During their meeting, Mottaki expressed his country's uneasiness that the neighboring countries did not have a meeting among themselves beforehand.

    Meanwhile, Gul told Mottaki "we also wished to hold a neighbors meeting in Cairo and then an enlarged meeting in Istanbul."

    The diplomatic sources said that Turkey is supporting the meeting and will participate in it in any way.

    The two also discussed the issue of the Iranian diplomats detained by U.S. forces in Iraq and Iran's nuclear program controversy.