Iranian state media said Iran's Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mussavi-Lari had offered top Kurdish leader Jalal Talabani, the current chair of the US-appointed Iraqi body, assistance in matters ranging from border security to drafting a new constitution.

"Now the black dictatorship of Saddam Hussein is over... the two nations can build mutual, regional and international trust," Mussavi-Lari told Talabani, who is heading a top delegation on a two-day visit to Tehran.

"Iran can and is ready to share with you our experience in the fields of border security, the training and structuring of a police force, economic ties between border provinces, management of pilgrims, running city halls, issuing birth certificates and organising a census," he said.

"Since we have organised 23 elections we are ready to share our experiences in the framework of drafting a constitution, setting up an assembly and setting up polling stations," he added.

The reports did not say if Talabani, who also heads the powerful Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and has at times enjoyed close ties with Iran but is now seen as being close to the United States, gave any detailed response to the each of the offers.

But the BBC said on its website Talabani had told it Iran had agreed to help fight "terrorism" in Iraq, and had accepted that the current wave of attacks against US-led forces was not resistance to occupation but "the work of indiscriminate killers."

Iraq's interim Foreign Minister, Hoshyar Zebari, said Iran had agreed to help tighten control along the long border between the two countries and try to prevent infiltration, according to the BBC.

During the Iraqi visit, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami for the first time Monday expressly recognised the US-backed interim Governing Council after meeting with Talabani.