JACK STRAW: Good Afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen. It has been my pleasure to welcome to London my friend and colleague, Mr Kamal Kharrazi, the Foreign Minister of Iran. The Prime Minister has just had a 40 minute discussion, which ran over, with Mr Kharrazi. It covered, obviously, a range of issues, and was preceded by getting on for an hour's discussion which Mr Kharrazi and I and our respective officials had upstairs in the Foreign Office behind us. The key issues we discussed was Iran's progress in respect of the nuclear dossier. We discussed the letters which three European Foreign Ministers sent in August, the agreement which we reached in Tehran on 21 October and subsequent discussions, and then we also went on to talk about Iraq. So far as Iraq is concerned, I expressed again my condolences to Mr Kharrazi, to the government and people of Iran, for the murder of the Iranian First Secretary in Baghdad just a few days ago... showing no mercy and no discrimination in their victims. I thanked Mr Kharrazi for the cooperation which we have received, and continue to receive, in respect of Iraq, and then there were other bilateral issues we discussed.

KAMAL KHARRAZI: Thank you very much. We had a very good discussion with my colleague, as well as the Prime Minister, on different issues, including the situation in Iraq, the situation in Palestine, as well as the nuclear issue. We have been working very hard with our collaboratives in Europe, the three countries, to work out the question of the nuclear issue of Iran, and big steps have been taken so far and we hope that what has been committed will be exercised on both sides to finalise the question of the nuclear issue of Iran in the up-coming meeting of the Board of Foreigners in June. This would be possible through close cooperation between Iran, the three countries and the IAEA, and that is exactly what we have planned to do and we are going to meet in future again to expedite this process until we could achieve our goal in time.

On the question of Iraq, we are a neighbouring country to Iraq and we have many concerns about the Iraqi future, the current Iraqi crisis, and we have been trying our best to help to calm down the situation and to help Iraqis to overcome their problems and to prepare the ground for the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq to be fully representative. Right now the question is how power has to be transferred, and to whom it should be transferred. We discussed different proposals which are available. To me I believe the important thing is to have the support of Iraqis themselves on any proposal that is suggested, and in that respect certainly neighbouring countries can help.

On the Middle East as well we had some talks and I believe the situation in the Middle East is the root cause of many problems in that part of the world. To tackle these problems, including extremism in the Islamic world, we have to see how the Palestinian issue has to be resolved. As long as injustice prevails in Palestine, naturally these extremists' behaviours will continue. Therefore I believe these kind of discussions, although there may be different views on both sides, but it is very useful and I am glad that I had this opportunity to have these discussions today.

QUESTION: A point to you both. How do you think the uprise, upsurge in violence amongst the Shia population in Iraq should be tackled?

KAMAL KHARRAZI: I could say that to tackle the difficulties in Iraq, wisdom and prudence has to be used, otherwise if someone, as it has been the case, believes that only by using force against the Iraqi people, they can achieve their goal, this is a deadly crime. I believe recent developments prove that there has been wrong policies exercised in Iraq and the best way to control the situation is to stop these wrong policies and respect Iraqi people, their will and to try to prepare the ground for the transfer of power as soon as possible.

JACK STRAW We are at one about the need for there to be a transfer of power as quickly as possible, and what Minister Kharrazi has said about wisdom and prudence I think is very apposite. There obviously has to be the use of force in certain circumstances, but it has to be proportionate and it has to work alongside a political strategy, and that is what we and the coalition partners, including the United States, are seeking to achieve.

QUESTION: Foreign Secretary, you have accepted finally as a coalition the need for a UN role in Iraq. Do you think that neighbours such as Iran, or Syria, or other neighbouring countries could play also a role in influencing the situation and ensuring stability where the coalition clearly is failing?

JACK STRAW May I say we have always accepted the need for a United Nations role from the very start before this conflict began, and since military action first took place there have been three United Nations Security Council resolutions, all unanimous - 1483, 1500 and 1515 - and in each of those the role of the United Nations has been strengthened. Had it not been for the murder of the United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative, Sergio Viero de Melo, on 19 August last year, the United Nations would have been playing a more active role and that would have been to everybody's benefit. But that was something the terrorists prevented, not us. Of course there is a major role for all the neighbours, for all six countries which neighbour Iraq, and for the wider Arab and Islamic world and we look forward to engagement with them.