Washington - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she had no plans to meet with her Iranian counterpart at a gathering next week of Iraq's neighbours in Kuwait.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was expected to attend the conference Tuesday, but Rice said she did not intend to meet with him and accused the Iranians of backing Shiite militias in Iraq.

"No, I don't intend to meet the Iranians. That's not in the plan," Rice told reporters. "The Iranians will be at the meeting. I'm not trying to suggest they won't be. But, no, I don't have any plans to meet them."

The United States has stepped up allegations that Iran is meddling in Iraq by providing money, weapons and training to Shiite militants responsible for violence.

"Iran must end malign actions that interfere in Iraq's affairs, undermine Iraq's government and harm or murder innocent Iraqis," Rice said ahead of her trip, which first includes a stop Monday in Bahrain for a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council countries plus Jordan and Egypt.

Iran has denied supporting the militias.

Rice said she will urge Arab countries to show stronger support for the Iraqi government by providing debt relief and sending ambassadors to Baghdad. There are no Arab ambassadors in Baghdad. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain have pledged to do so, but they claim the poor security environment has put those plans on hold.

"Iraq should be fully reincorporated into the Arab world," she said. "I think that in and of itself will begin to shield from influences of Iran that are nefarious influences."

Rice has previously said she will meet with Mottaki only if Iran complies with UN demands to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to develop nuclear weapons. Iran says the programme is for producing civilian nuclear energy. (dpa)