DAR AL HARB/ISLAM - U.S.A./IRAN: "WE SAID THEY HAD TO FORMALLY ASK FOR SUCH TALKS & THEY DID" SO SAID AHMADINEJAD - THE MAN IN THE DRIVERS SEAT

Mixed reaction in Iran to historic Iran-U.S. talks in Baghdad

TEHRAN, Iran: Iranians on Tuesday largely hailed the historic talks in Baghdad that broke a 27-year diplomatic freeze between Iran and the U.S. but extremists within the country's hard-line camp appeared to downplay the meeting, with one newspaper suggesting Tehran refuse to sit down with the Americans again.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran only agreed to the talks, which were held Monday, after the U.S. asked Iran repeatedly over 40 days and agreed to an Iranian request to send a formal diplomatic note.

"The Americans sent messages for talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran for 40 days. At the end, we said they had to formally ask for such talks and they did," state-run television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying Tuesday.

The talks in the Green Zone offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday were the first formal and scheduled meeting between Iranian and American government officials since the United States broke diplomatic relations with Tehran after the 1979 Islamic Revolution and the seizure of the U.S. Embassy.

Many Iranian newspapers hailed the ambassador-level meeting that focused solely on Iraq's security, with the reformist daily Kargozaran describing it as "a crack in the wall of mistrust."

Another reformist daily Etemad said the talks were "a turning point" that may end nearly three decades of estrangement between Tehran and Washington.

"The mere holding of the talks is a turning point. Historians will register May 28, 2007 as a turning point as far as contacts between Iran and America are concerned," it said.

Etemad credited the meeting's success to efforts by the former reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who it said reached out to the West despite the ruling hard-line regime's attempts to thwart dialogue between the two countries.

Even some conservative newspapers praised the talks, saying they would help Iran increase its own security.

Tehran-e-Emrooz, a moderately conservative newspaper, said Iran had achieved a victory because by holding the talks, the U.S. acknowledged it has failed in Iraq and needed Iran's help.

"Iran is prepared to take any action to reduce differences and fighting in Iraq," Tehran-e-Emrooz added.

The government-owned daily Iran said Tehran shouldn't hold talks with the United States on bilateral relations, but talks on Iraq's security had "correct and logical foundations."

"The truth is that Iran's participation in the three-party talks in Baghdad was merely to strengthen the elected Iraqi government and finding a way to end Iraqi peoples' problems," it said.

But one hard-line paper warned that the talks would damage Iran.

"Talks in Baghdad clearly showed that negotiations with the United States, even about the specific issue of Iraq, is not a precise and calculated move. For this reason, it is better that such talks are not continued and are cut at this point," the daily Jomhuri-e-Eslami said in an editorial Tuesday.

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