U.S., Iran icy to one another at Arab meeting

Later, Mottaki said he spoke to Saudi delegates about the situation in the region and suggested the United States was dividing Arab countries and Iran. "The enemies of the region are seeking to sow the seeds of discord among the countries of our area and this is what we should be very alert to," he told a press conference.

Asked about U.S. accusations that Iran supports Shiite militias in Iraq, Mottaki said the problem was foreign troops and called on Washington to withdraw its forces from Iraq. "The main players on the Iraqi playground are the foreign forces. They insist on their policies there, although they are failed policies," he said.

Al-Maliki said he will be looking for tangible support, including relief from Iraq's $67 billion foreign debt — most of it owed to Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

"There are countries that support the political process and are opening embassies here. We need the others to open embassies here, too," al-Maliki told reporters.

The direct appeal to Arab heavyweights highlights the regional dilemma posed by Iraq.

Al-Maliki is hoping that his ongoing military crackdown against Shiite militants — mostly fighters allied to anti-American cleric Muqtada al-Sadr — will allay Arab fears that he has Iranian leanings, as well as quell a bias against his own Sunni population, which long held a privileged position under Saddam Hussein.

Sunni militant groups like al-Qaida in Iraq, mistrustful of Iraq's Shiite government, have warned Arab states not to open embassies in Baghdad. The capital's first major car bomb of the war struck the Jordanian Embassy, killing 19 people. Diplomats from Egypt, Bahrain, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates have all been either killed, wounded or kidnapped in Iraq.

The venue of Tuesday's meeting was symbolic because Kuwait was invaded by Saddam in 1990. Baghdad's current estrangement, however, is linked to distrust by neighboring Sunni Arab states that al-Maliki's Shiite-led government has any interests at heart but its own.

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