Iraq is ready to boost ties with Iran, a neighboring country which fought a bitter war with Saddam Hussein's regime in 1980-1988, the Iraqi foreign minister said Tuesday.

"We have been working with Iran to open a new page in the bilateral relationship," Hoshiar al-Zebari told a press conference jointly held with his visiting Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi. "We need to build a new Iraq, which will work in peace with its neighbors and the countries in the region and the world," Iraq's top diplomat said.

For his part, Kharazi pledged to support Iraq's transitional government led by Shiite Islamist Ibrahim al-Jaafari, whose cabinet was sworn in on April 28, three months after the landmark election was held on Jan. 30.

Kharazi expressed expectations that a close cooperation with Iraq will be forged, adding a joint committee will be set up to control the security in the region.

Denying his country has interfered in Iraq's internal affairs, Kharazi said Tehran knows nothing about the suspects who have reportedly infiltrated into Iraq from its porous border with Iran.

Kharazi is the highest-ranking Iranian official to visit Iraq since Saddam's regime was toppled by the US-led forces in 2003.The relation between the two former rivals had remained frosty until Iraq's Shiite majority gained political clout after the Jan.30 election.

Both Iraq's new transitional President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister al-Jafaari are believed to have strong ties with Iran, a Shiite-dominated Islamic republic.

(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2005)