Washington ? The United States didn’t invite Iran to an international conference on Iraq reconstruction, which became awkwardly clear Thursday when a European diplomat said Iran was welcome in spite of long-standing enmity between Washington and the Islamic regime in Tehran.

The European Union and Iraq are joining the United States in hosting the conference June 22 in Brussels. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced plans for the conference last month while in Iraq, and the State Department released details this week. Iran’s participation had not been mentioned until a reporter asked about it during a Thursday news conference with European diplomats at the State Department.

Rice gave no direct response. Instead, she ticked off U.S. and international complaints about Iran, including allegations that Iran supports terrorists, thwarts Mideast peace and may be developing a nuclear weapon. Iran and the United States have had no diplomatic relations since the 1979 seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran by Iranian students.

“We don’t have relations with Iran. Everybody understands that. And we have our differences with Iran,” she said.

Then Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn, noting that his country has the presidency of the European Union, said: “Luxembourg has relations with Iran. Iran are invited.”

Rice quickly followed Asselborn’s statement by saying the United States has no objection to including Iran.

“We want Iran and Iraq to have good, neighborly, transparent relations. And to the degree that this serves that cause, we’re all for it,” she said.

It is not clear whether Iran will attend the one-day conference.

The United States has said little in public about Iranian influence over Iraq since the successful Iraqi elections in January, but Rice brought it up Thursday.

“I have never believed that the Iraqi people, having thrown off the yoke of Saddam Hussein, now wish to subject themselves to the rule of the Guardian Council of Iran,” she said. “And so I really do believe that the Iraqis, left to their own devices, will find their own path.”