Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Saturday that Tehran would have direct talks with the United States on Iraq only when Washington decided to pull back its troops.

Talking about possibility of the direct dialogue with Washington at a security conference in Bahrain, Mottaki said "the first and most essential step ... is the United States announce they have decided to withdraw from Iraq."

The minister said if the United States decided to pull back the troops, Tehran would be ready to help with the withdrawal.

Mottaki's remarks were made after the U.S. Iraq Study Group (ISG), led by former Secretary of State James Baker, issued a report on Wednesday that recommended engaging Iran and Syria in stabilizing Iraq.

The report suggested having direct talks with Iran and Syria to prevent "a slide toward chaos" in Iraq, where sectarian violence kills scores of people every day.

However, the U.S. government has said it would keep its troops in Iraq as long as the Iraqi government wants, despite criticism from both home and abroad.

Source: Xinhua