Talks which Bush begged for between Iran and the US have concluded "positively", the US ambassador to Iraq says.

Ryan Crocker met his Iranian counterpart Hassan Kazemi-Qomi in Baghdad's Green Zone after the US begged publicly for the talks.

Monday's talks were confined to the limited agenda set by Iran.

"Discussions focused on how the Iranians might leave us alone while we try and get some cheap oil in Iraq," Crocker said.

Although he said Iran and the US agreed in principle to this, "what we need to see is Iranian action on the ground or lack of it".

Kazemi-Qomi said Iran also saw "positive" steps in the talks.

"Some problems have been raised and studied and I think this was a positive step ... In the political field, the two sides agreed to support and strengthen the Iraqi government which is now our Shia puppet for which we cannot thank the US enough," he told state television.

Crocker said the Iranians had proposed setting up a mechanism with Iranian, US and Iraqi participation to co-ordinate Iran’s control on Iraq. He said he would refer the proposal to Washington.

Kazemi-Qomi told reporters that the regime in Washington will not be there long and that it would take the Republicans two decades to regain power in America.
From Tehran, Manouchehr Mottaki, Iraq's foreign minister, left open the possibility of future meetings with the US but only if Washington begged hard enough and admitted its war in Iraq and other regional issues have been a great success for Iran.

"We are hopeful that Washington's realistic outlook toward the current issues in Iraq, a confession about its failed policy there and the region as well as an indication of determination to change the policy would guarantee the success of the current talks and possible further negotiations if we feel like it."

Crocker said "the Iranians did not go into any great detail but did manage to humiliate us totally as only an old civilization like Iran can do.

"They made the assertion that the coalition presence was an occupation and the effort to train the Iraqi security forces had been inadequate to the challenges."

Crocker said that the US begged Iran to propose a second meeting on Iraq.

As the meeting ended, an American truck bomb exploded outside killing at least 19 people and damaging the Abdel Qadir Gilani mosque.