Baghdad ? The U.S. ambassador met with his Iranian counterpart Monday in Baghdad in the first formal bilateral talks between the two nations in more than a quarter century, though the talks alone were characterized by U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker as unlikely to lead to specific gains to reduce violence in Iraq.

The talks did not address Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear program, or the fate of five Iranians accused of helping militias in Iraq. Iran maintains the five are diplomats.

Crocker said both governments shared broad agreement on the need for a secure, stable Iraq – the sole focus of talks.

The Associated Press quoted Iranian Ambassador Hassan Kazemi Qomi saying the two sides would meet again within the month, but Crocker told reporters in Baghdad that results would have to precede future conversations between the two parties.

“This is about actions, not just principles, and I laid out before the Iranians a number of our direct specific concerns about their behavior in Iraq, their support for militias that are fighting both the Iraqi security forces and coalition forces,” Crocker said after the meeting.

Crocker and Qomi met for four hours in the Green Zone offices of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose government has fostered friendly relations with both countries and is eager to see them keep their differences out of Iraq.

The prime minister and other Iraqi officials have expressed concerns that Iraq was becoming the victim of a proxy war between the U.S. and Iran.

Al-Maliki did not attend the meeting but did greet the two ambassadors as they shook hands, and led them to a conference room about 10:30 a.m.

“We are sure that securing progress in this meeting would, without doubt, enhance the bridges of trust between the two countries,” al-Maliki said after the meeting began. Such an improvement could only help Iraq, he said.

Nor is Iraq the only party keen to see the talks succeed. The United States has been forced to come to grips with Tehran in the course of the war, said Joost Hiltermann, director of the International Crisis Group in Amman, Jordan. While the Iranians have called for an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, some regional experts have said Tehran wants to see Iraq’s troubles resolved before the U.S. removes its forces.

“Neither country wants Iraq to fall apart,” Hiltermann said.

In what Crocker characterized as one of Iran’s few concrete proposals Monday, Iran suggested a future “trilateral mechanism” to coordinate security matters in Iraq that includes the U.S., Iraq and Iran. A decision to participate would have to be made in Washington, Crocker said he told the Iranian delegation.

Iran also sought an admission that U.S. policy in Iraq and the Middle East had failed. “We are hopeful that Washington’s realistic approach to the current issues of Iraq by confessing its failed policy in Iraq and the region and by showing a determination to changing the policy guarantees success of the talks and possible further talks,” Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said in Tehran, according to the AP.

The American ambassador said the Iranian position had been stated, but that discussions Monday had moved on to other topics of broader agreement.

“I would characterize the atmosphere of the talk as businesslike,” Crocker said, adding that Iran has similar goals in Iraq. “There was pretty good congruence right down the line – support for a secure, stable, democratic Iraq, in control of its own security, at peace with its neighbors.”