AFP: US President Barack Obama Friday proposed setting up a new contact group on Afghanistan including long-standing US foe Iran to help find ways of quelling the bloody Al-Qaeda insurgency.

Daily Telegraph: David Miliband urged Iran to seize the "opportunity" created by America's olive branch on Thursday, adding that Tehran would "never" have a better chance to settle the confrontation over its nuclear ambitions.

AP: A Swiss court on Thursday found a Czech man guilty of breaking export laws by selling technology to Iran that could be used for missile-building.

Reuters: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has no plans for a "substantive" meeting with Iranian officials at a conference on Afghanistan in the Hague next week, the State Department said on Thursday.

Reuters: U.S. President Barack Obama's offer of better ties with Iran provides the best opportunity to improve relations with the Islamic state, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Thursday.

AFP: Iran said on Thursday it will attend a US-backed conference on Afghanistan to be held in The Hague next week, in a signal it is ready to help the new US administration restore stability to its eastern neighbour.

AFP: An Iranian diplomat and a NATO official have held "informal talks" at alliance headquarters in Brussels in the first such meeting in 30 years, NATO officials confirmed Thursday.

New York Times: Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s Parliament, criticized the United States on Wednesday in harsher terms than any other leading Iranian figure has done since President Obama extended his videotaped olive branch to Iran last week.