U.S. and Iranian officials, whose relations are normally fraught over Tehran's nuclear programme, have held a rare meeting at which a U.S. official told Iran they were ready to cooperate on fighting drugs, Reuters reported.
U.S. envoy Glyn Davies said he had held a meeting on Friday with Ali Asghar Soltanieh of Iran which is chairing the week-long U.N. Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) meeting in Vienna.
"It is in our interest to participate with the CND," Davies told reporters. "We are very happy to work with the chair even if he is from a country which we have differences with."
Washington and Tehran are locked in a bitter dispute over the Iranian nuclear programme which the West suspects is aimed at producing nuclear weapons and which Iran says is purely for civilian uses such as generating power.
The United States said on Monday it was prepared to work with Iran on tackling global drug flows and there was room for cooperation with Iran on this issue.
"We had a very brief organizational meeting where I indicated to him (Soltanieh) that we look forward to working with him to get some accomplishments, some achievements, together in this area," Davies said in a briefing.
Iran and the United States could try to work together on tackling the trafficking of drugs from Afghanistan, said Gil Kerlikowske, the director of the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy.
Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment on the meeting.