Iraq won't be used to threaten neighbours - Maliki

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iraq's prime minister, who started a visit to Iran on Saturday, told Iranian state television his government would not allow Iraq to be used as a base to threaten its neighbours.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told Iran's Arabic news channel on Friday that Iraq "will not let Iraq be a launching ground to threaten any country," Al-Alam said on its website.

U.S. forces in Iraq came under Iraqi mandate on Jan. 1, a move Maliki said restored sovereignty nearly six years after the U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Iran is embroiled in a row over its nuclear plans with the United States, which has refused to rule out military action if diplomacy fails to end the dispute. Washington and its allies accuse Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, which Tehran denies.

Analysts say any U.S. attack against Iran would most likely involve air strikes rather than any land invasion. Washington used its bases in regional countries to attack Iraq in 2003.

Washington and Tehran have traded accusations about who is responsible for violence in Iraq. U.S. officials say Tehran backs Iraqi militants. Tehran blames the presence of U.S. forces and says they should withdraw from Iraq and the whole region.

Baghdad has long urged both sides not to use Iraq as a proxy battleground. The level of violence in Iraq has recently subsided but lethal bomb and gun attacks are still common.

Maliki also "emphasised that Iraq will open all pending files with neighbouring states and others in order to build sound relations with them," the report said, adding that Iraq would be an "axis for positive relations with Iran".

Iraq's government said on Wednesday it wanted 3,500 members of the exiled Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahideen Organisation of Iran (PMOI) in Camp Ashraf, north of Baghdad, to leave the country.