Iran has agreed to a new round of talks with the US on Iraq after Washington made an offer via the Swiss embassy in Tehran, Manouchehr Mottaki, the country's foreign minister, said.

"The Swiss embassy in Iran passed on the message of the US government for a new round of talks on Iraq to my colleagues in the foreign ministry," he said on Tuesday.

"Iran has agreed with this request within the framework of its policy of helping the Iraqi people.

The exact date of the fourth round of the talks will be announced in the near future," he said.

The two countries, long at odds over who is to blame for the violence in Iraq as well as over Tehran's disputed atomic ambitions, held three rounds of discussions earlier this year on how to improve the security situation there.

Ryan Crocker, the US ambassador to Iraq, and Hassan Kazemi Qomi, his Iranian counterpart, held two sets of face-to-face talks on May 28 and July 24, the highest level public contacts between the two sides for 27 years.

Past meetings

The two sides also met at experts level on August 6 but no meeting has been held since then.

All the talks failed to achieve a major breakthrough and were marked by mutual accusations over who was to blame for the violence in Iraq.

Iran says the problems are caused by "occupying" US forces while Washington accuses Tehran of backing Shia fighters and shipping in armour-penetrating bombs for attacks on US troops.

Iran has always denied the charges. "Iran is agreeing to this request in the framework of the policy of helping the Iraqi government and nation and (supporting) stability and security in this country," state radio quoted Mottaki as saying.

Iraq's government spokesman, last week said it was encouraged by signs of a thaw in ties between Iran and the US over Iraq but that it wanted the two sides to have a "proper dialogue" about the issue.

PHOTO CAPTION

Hassan Kazemi Qomi, left, and Crocker have so far held two sets of face-to-face talks on Iraq [AFP]

Al-Jazeera