Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki confirmed on Wednesday that his country would participate in the conference on Iraq scheduled for Saturday in Baghdad.

"We will send the Iranian delegation (to join the conference) which will be led by deputy foreign minister in charge of legal and international affairs, Abbas Araghchi," Mottaki told a press conference.

"We are looking forward that the conference would show that countries in the region back the government and nation of Iraq, " said the minister, adding "Iran participates in order to help the Iraqi government and people".

Mottaki's comments are the first confirmation of Iran's attendance to the Saturday meeting in Baghdad since Iraqi government's formal invitation last week.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice declared last Tuesday that the U.S. would join the mid-March meeting organized by the Iraqi government, saying she supported Iraq's decision to invite Iran and Syria to attend the conference.

Washington's new position was considered by international media as a huge diplomatic turnabout since the Bush administration refused direct dialogue with Tehran over the Iraqi issue for several months.

The United States has persistently accused Iran of supporting the Iraqi insurgents to fight with coalition forces since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, but Tehran has denied it and saying such allegations were deliberate intervention in Iran-Iraq ties by the U.S.

Due to Iran's what America called "bad role" in war-torn Iraq, a number of Iranians in that country have been arrested and the U. S. also started to build up its military power in the Gulf region.

Source: Xinhua