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The United States and Iran held the first meeting on Monday of a new sub-committee set up to find ways for the two arch foes to cooperate in ending Iraq's sectarian violence.

Establishing the security sub-committee has been the main achievement so far of the first direct contacts between the United States and Iran, enemies which have had no diplomatic ties for almost 30 years but were driven to the negotiating table by the threat of all-out civil war in Iraq.

Washington accuses Tehran of fomenting unrest in Iraq, supporting militias and supplying weapons such as armour-piercing bombs used to kill U.S. troops. Iran denies the charge and blames Iraq's unrelenting sectarian violence on the 2003 U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein.

Neither country has said precisely what it hopes to achieve at the talks. Asked about the agenda of the meeting, U.S. embassy spokesman Philip Reeker said only: "security in Iraq."

The talks were hosted by Iraqi officials in Baghdad and led by Marcie Ries, a senior diplomat at the U.S. embassy, and Amir Abdollahian, the deputy head of Iran's mission.

The two countries also have a long-running feud over Iran's nuclear program, but officials say it has not been raised in the Iraq talks.

HUGE BOMB

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A huge truck bomb in a residential neighborhood in a northern Iraq town killed at least 28 people, many of them women and children, police said.

Rescue workers sifted through rubble in an attempt to find survivors from the attack in a residential area in Tal Afar, near the Syrian border. As many as 10 houses were flattened by the bomb, police said. Some 50 people were hurt.

In eastern Baghdad, six people died and nine were wounded when street cleaners were hit by a bomb hidden in a rubbish bin in the early morning. Another bomb on a minibus killed two.

Overnight, police in the town of Baquba -- capital of Diyala province, where U.S. and Iraqi forces have mounted an offensive against insurgents over the past several weeks -- found 60 decomposing corpses dumped in tall grass.

Baghdad police said 18 bodies were found in the capital.

Washington has increased pressure on Iraq's leaders, accusing them of failing to make political progress.

On Sunday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates criticized Iraq's parliament for going on recess last week without passing laws Washington considers vital for ending sectarian violence.

"I said 'for every day that we buy you, we're buying it with American blood. The idea of you going on vacation is unacceptable'," Gates said on NBC's "Meet the Press."

Iraqi politicians are expected to hold talks this week to restore a unity cabinet which was designed to reduce sectarian strife by including members of all communities but which hit a crisis last week when the main Sunni Arab group pulled out.

Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi'ite who has led the coalition government since taking power last year, announced on Sunday he would not accept the resignations of the six Sunni Arab cabinet ministers who quit last week.

But the ministers' Accordance Front bloc said they would quit anyway unless Maliki met their demands, which include more influence over security policy.

Front leader Adnan al-Dulaimi said Maliki was running "an unsuccessful sectarian government that intended to frustrate the political process."

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