Tehran, Feb.2 (ANI): Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Friday that US militaristic policies in the region were to blame for the raging violence in neighbouring Iraq.

The United States is responsible for the insecurity in Iraq, The News quoted Mottaki as saying in an address during Friday prayers in Tehran.

Washington has repeatedly accused Iran of fomenting the violence in Iraq, where tens of thousands of people were killed last year alone in insurgent attacks and sectarian violence.

It has specifically charged that Iranian agents are behind attacks on US troops and last month seized five Iranians in the northern Iraqi town of Arbil.

The arrests triggered a diplomatic row, with Tehran accusing US forces of violating international diplomatic rules, but Washington said they were arming militias and inciting anti-US attacks in Iraq and had no diplomatic status.

Mottaki charged that the administration of US President George W. Bush was following a militaristic policy in the region and failing to listen to recommendations for a political approach to conflict.

The United States, despite the presence of hundreds of thousands of troops, is unable to achieve its objectives, he said. It has failed in Iraq, in Lebanon in Palestine, he said. And in the face of its failures, it is hunting for a scapegoat and so accuses Iran.

Mottaki again denounced the arrest of the five Iranians and said Tehran had asked the Iraqi government and the United Nations to act to free them.

Iraq said this week it was inviting its neighbours, including Iran, to to discuss ways of boosting security in the war-wracked country at a conference in Baghdad in March.

This meeting will be a way of demonstrating our support for the Iraqi government in the face of those groups which seek to stoke insecurity, Mottaki added.

Meanwhile, a senior Iranian official has denied reports that Tehran was blocking UN nuclear inspectors and that 3,000 centrifuges were being installed at a key enrichment site.

Within the framework of Iran's commitment to the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), there is no and there will be no restriction to inspectors' access, the official told foreign news agency on condition of anonymity.

We have not begun installing new centrifuges, he added, denying reports by diplomats close to the IAEA in Vienna who said that Iran had begun construction of 3,000 centrifuges at its nuclear facility in Natanz. (ANI with inputs)