High-level security talks begin in Germany

High-level officials have begun security talks in Germany with Syria, Mali and Iran on the agenda. Source: AAP

HIGH-LEVEL officials, diplomats, ministers and top military brass have kicked off three days of talks at the Munich Security Conference amid a US warning to Iran over stalled nuclear talks.

US Vice-President Joe Biden, who is due to attend the Munich talks on Saturday, began a three-nation European tour cautioning Iran that the opportunity for talks with the West over Tehran's contested nuclear program was not open-ended.

A day after meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin, freshly inaugurated Biden is due to address participants in Munich on Saturday and turn his attentions to Syria amid fears the conflict may spill over the country's borders.

He is scheduled to meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Syrian opposition chief Moaz al-Khatib, and also see UN-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi in the southern German city, the White House said.

Outgoing US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Iran is stepping up support for the Syrian regime and that Russia is still arming it, heightening concerns after Damascus threatened to retaliate over a reported Israeli air raid.

"What we would like to see from other countries, including Russia, is an acknowledgment that (Syrian President) Bashar al-Assad must go and that there needs to be a transition within Syria to a new government," said Ben Rhodes, a White House national security adviser.

Brahimi and al-Khatib take part in late-night talks on Syria in Munich on Friday.

NATO's plan to withdraw the bulk of its 100,000 combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014 as well as developments in the Muslim and Arab world two years after the Arab Spring revolts are also set to be themes here.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo join a discussion on the euro crisis and the EU's future later on Friday, when energy issues are also a focus.

Opening the conference on Friday, German Defence Minister Thomas de Maiziere said he was optimistic that the US and Europe could rely on each other and must be able to do so even as both regions turn towards Asia.

"For the US, Europe may not be the best conceivable partner in the world, but it is without any doubt the best possible partner," he said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi is expected to attend the Munich talks as well as EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the so-called P5+1 group of the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany in talks on Iran's nuclear ambitions.

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