Iran Wednesday said whether it would attend an upcoming Iraq meeting in Egypt was still undecided yet.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki made the remarks at a press conference with his visiting Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari. "We are going to examine it, and will declare our decision on the conference soon," said Mottaki.

"We support the Iraqi people and the Iraqi government...( our participation of the February conference in Baghdad) proved Iran's desire to help bring security and stability to this brother country," he added.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Zebari arrived in Tehran Wednesday afternoon to hold talks with Mottaki, in order to convince Iran to attend an upcoming neighboring states' meeting on Iraq due to be held in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh on May 3-4.

Ahead of his visit to Iran, the Iraqi minister said he would raise issues of mutual interest and regional developments in meetings with Iranian officials.

Iran has said its presence or nonpresence in the Sharm el- Sheikh meeting depends on the meeting between Mottaki and Zebari.

According to Western reports, Iran was irresolute to join the meeting because Tehran had been quite angry on the detention by U. S.forces of five Iranians seized in a raid in northern Iraq in January.

Zebari said the detention of the five had no connection with Iran's attendance to the meeting, but Mottaki stressed "we hold the U.S government responsible for the detention, and the Iraqi government has the responsibility of getting their release".

From Mottaki's words, it's still unclear if Iran would join the meeting in the end. Beside six neighboring states, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry has also invited UN Security Council's five permanent members of Russia, China, France, Britain and the United States, and representatives of Group of Eight industrialized nations, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), the Arab League plus Egypt and Bahrain to attend the Sharm el-Sheikh gathering.

On Friday, the U.S. State Department said that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would attend the international conference on Iraq.

Source: Xinhua