Feb. 27 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. diplomats will attend a conference on Iraq to which envoys from Iran and Syria are invited, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at a Senate budget hearing today.

``We hope all governments will seize this opportunity to improve their relations with Iraq, and to work for peace and stability in the region,'' Rice told the Senate Appropriations Committee.

Iraq invited all neighboring countries to the conference next month, which is aimed at improving security in the country amid daily attacks on civilians. It would mark the first time the U.S. has sat with Iran and Syria to look at Iraq's future, an initiative that lawmakers and a bipartisan panel of American statesmen have sought.

The Bush administration has refused to conduct direct talks with Syria and Iran about Iraq's security, saying those governments are fomenting sectarian violence there and aiding attacks on U.S. troops. Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja'afari, said today his government hasn't decided whether to attend. Rice said she didn't know if Iran had agreed to participate.

The four countries that hold permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council with the U.S. -- Britain, China, France and Russia -- also are invited, according to Rice.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington that roadside bombs, including a deadly type known as explosively formed penetrators, are ``certainly at the top of our list'' in any discussion of security in Iraq.

Disables Tank

The penetrators can disable an Abrams tank, and have been used with deadly effect against U.S. forces in Iraq. President George W. Bush has accused Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps of supplying the weapon to Iraqi Shiite groups for use against American soldiers. Iran rejects the accusation.

U.S. officials also accuse Iran of using its nuclear program to hide work on an atomic weapon, which has resulted in a standoff between the Iranian government and the United Nations.

The UN Security Council unanimously voted Dec. 23 to impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programs, and ordered Iran to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can fuel a reactor or produce a bomb. Iran hasn't suspended that work.

McCormack said Iran still would have to meet the UN's demands for those kinds of talks to take place. With that exception, however, he said later: ``I'm not going to exclude any particular interaction at this point, in that forum, at the regional level, on issues that are important to us, but the focus will be on Iraq.''

The conference is tentatively set for March 10-11, Iraq's ambassador in Washington, Samir Sumaidaie, said last month. Invitations have also gone out to Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Bahrain, and the Arab League.

Second Meeting

This meeting will be followed, perhaps as early as the first half of April, by a gathering of ministers from the invited governments, plus others from the Group of Eight industrialized countries, Rice said.

Attempts to impose order in Iraq face violent obstacles. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, testifying to the Senate panel with Rice, said there are four wars going on in the country. He cited a Shiite versus Shiite conflict in southern Iraq, a sectarian fight pitting Shiites against Sunnis in Baghdad, an insurgency directed by Baathists who ran Iraq under Saddam Hussein, and attacks mounted by the terrorist group al-Qaeda.

Eighteen children were killed today when a car bomb exploded at a soccer field in Ramadi, about 70 miles west of Baghdad, Iraqi state television reported. The Associated Press said there were questions about the report because of a detonation of explosives in the same city by the U.S. military.

`Larger Than Expected'

The ``much larger than expected'' blast from the detonation of a cache of an unidentified explosive shattered glass in surrounding buildings and wounded 30 Ramadi residents and one Iraqi soldier, according to a U.S. military statement.

American military efforts are expanding in Baghdad and areas west of the capital in an attempt to root out violent rebels. The diplomatic initiative Rice described is important to supplement that effort, Senator Arlen Specter said at the hearing on funding for Iraq and Afghanistan.

Specter, a Pennsylvania Republican, said the planned talks among Iraq's neighbors would be important in sustaining congressional support for President George W. Bush's policy in Iraq.

At the White House, spokesman Tony Snow told reporters the administration is hopeful ``that Iran and Syria will play constructive roles'' in the multinational talks.

Study Group

The Iraq Study Group, headed by former secretary of state James Baker, recommended in its Dec. 6 report that the U.S. engage in a wider regional diplomatic offensive to curb violence in Iraq.

The group also recommended direct U.S. talks with Iran and Syria without conditions. Rice has been cool to the idea of direct negotiations though never ruled out the possibility of a regional conference. On Dec. 8, she said the U.S. would look at ``how Iraq's neighbors should be more involved in trying to stabilize Iraq.''

John Negroponte, the new deputy secretary of state, said in his Jan. 30 confirmation hearing that he didn't consider such a conference to be of utmost urgency. ``I would not say that, as a matter of priority, one would have to go right to a regional- type conference,'' he told senators.

To contact the reporter on this story: Judy Mathewson in Washington at jmathewson@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 27, 2007 16:46 EST