Iraq supports Iran’s right to pursue nuclear research, its new foreign minister said today, taking a position at odds with that of the Bush administration.

The foreign minister, Hoshiyar Zebari, spoke during a visit to Baghdad by Iran’s foreign minister, Manoucher Mottaki, that marked the reconciliation of two countries that fought a long and bloody war two decades ago.

According to news service accounts, Mr. Zebari said that Iraq does not want “any of our neighbors to have weapons of mass destruction.”

But he also confirmed “the right of the republic of Iran and the right of any other state to have scientific and technological abilities to research in the field of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.”

The United States and Europe have insisted that Iran give up its program of nuclear research. Iran says the program is meant only to give it the ability to generate nuclear energy and denies it is seeking weapons.

President Bush, speaking Thursday night at a news conference with Prime Minister Tony Blair, said that dropping its research would be a precondition for a new package of incentives being prepared by European countries.

“If they would like to see an enhanced package, the first thing they’ve got to do is suspend their operations, for the good of the world,” Mr. Bush said.

In Baghdad, Mr. Mottaki also confirmed that Iran has withdrawn its call for direct talks with the United States on the stability of Iraq. “Unfortunately, the American side tried to use this decision as propaganda,” he said, news services reported.

Mr. Zebari said that he and Mr. Mottaki had discussed security arrangements between the two countries. “We want to activate those mechanisms to overcome any interference or infringement, let’s say of our sovreignity,” he said.

While Iran and Iraq had historically been rivals in the region, Tehran has close ties to the religious parties that make up the Shiite coalition that is dominant force in the new government. Nevertheless, the United States has accused Iran of fomenting violence and instability by sending weapons and fighters into Iraq.

On Thursday, according to Reuters, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in an interview with Arab television accused organizations and charitable groups based in neighboring countries of funding armed groups within Iraq.

Mr. Maliki’s Dawa party was long based in Iran during its years of struggle against the regime of Saddam Hussein. But the leaders of the other main Shiite party, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution, are considered even closer to the government in Tehran, which helped fund and train its milita, the Badr Brigade.

Meanwhile today, eight people died and another 33 were wounded by a busy place under a car in a bus service garage in central Baghdad, the Interior Ministry said.

Reuters also reported that the Interior Ministry announced today that the coach of the national tennis team and two of his players had been shot to death on Tuesday as they drove through Baghdad.