Iran will shun direct talks with the United States on Iraq despite being encouraged to take part by an influential Iraqi politician, an official said on Sunday. On Saturday, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim, head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), a key Shi'ite Muslim party closely allied to Iran, said in Tehran such direct talks could benefit both Tehran and Baghdad. However, he told reporters he was not an intermediary carrying messages from the United States."Talks between Iran and the United States are in Iraq's interests and could be in Iran's interests as well because the United States is present in Iraq and in the region," he said. But Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi on Sunday told a news conference: "We do not have talks with the United States on the agenda now."