Clinton upbeat on US-Iran meeting

Mar 31 - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the US had held cordial talks with the Iranian delegation and that the two countries "would keep in touch" in a sign of a thawing of relations.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday (March 31) at a U.N. conference on Afghanistan that Taliban members in Afghanistan who abandoned extremism must be granted an "honourable form of reconciliation."

At a news conference after the meeting of around 80 countries including Iran, Pakistan, China and Russia, Clinton rejected suggestions that this policy amounted to the same thing as negotiating with terrorists.

Iran was invited at the conference and Clinton said that the US Afghan envoy Richard Holbrooke had held a cordial and unplanned meeting with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Mehdi Akhoundzadeh who came to represent Tehran.

Clinton said a U.S. government letter had been delivered to Iran during the conference asking for humanitarian help for three Americans in Iran she said were unable to return to the United States.

However tensions could be rising with North Korea which Clinton warned against launching missiles.

NOTE: Original sound only. No reporter narration.