Ahmadinejad welcomes talks with US

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday said Iran would welcome talks with the United States on the sidelines OF a conference on Iraq's future in Egypt, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

Speculation has swarmed over whether US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would meet with her Iranian counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki, during the conference, which begins Thursday. "The Iranian nation welcomes honest dialogue" with the US, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying during a speech in the southern Iranian city of Sirjan, some 1,000 kilometers (621 miles) south of the capital, Tehran. (AP)