Rumsfeld says Iran moving forces to Iraq

WASHINGTON — As U.S. and Russian diplomats tried to bridge a widening rift over Iran's nuclear programs and other issues, such as the Middle East, trade and democracy, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Tuesday accused Iran of dispatching elements of its Revolutionary Guard to stir trouble inside Iraq.

"They are currently putting people into Iraq to do things that are harmful to the future of Iraq," he told a Pentagon news conference, citing operations by the Al Quds Division of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

Rumsfeld and other U.S. officials have previously complained of Iranian complicity in the movement of explosives across the border into Iraq, but Rumsfeld had not mentioned Iranian forces before.

At another news conference across town, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed reports that Russia has in recent days been seeking to forge an agreement with Iran to curb its nuclear programs and slow the U.S. campaign for eventual U.N. Security Council sanctions.

Hours before Lavrov arrived in Washington, the United States rejected what diplomats said was a Russian compromise bid to allow Iran to do some atomic research for programs it says are solely for generating electricity.

Though Lavrov said it was too early to discuss U.N. sanctions, Vice President Dick Cheney, during a speech to a pro-Israeli group, said, "We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon."

Lavrov arrived in Washington after a controversial visit by Hamas leaders with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last weekend, which undermined U.S. efforts to pressure Hamas, which won the Palestinian legislative elections in January, to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Russia's diplomatic moves on Iran and Hamas further strained U.S.- Russian relations. After Rice said she had expressed U.S. worries about Russia's democracy, Lavrov retorted that Moscow too had concerns about the United States and complained that Washington was the sole holdout blocking its entry to the World Trade Organization.

Compiled from Reuters, The Washington Post, The Associated Press, New York Daily News and Los Angeles Times