(Adds Bush comments on extra troops, paragraphs 11-12)

By Mariam Karouny

BAGHDAD, March 10 (Reuters) - Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, addressing a meeting at which U.S. officials sat down with adversaries from Iran and Syria, urged Iraq's regional rivals on Saturday to stop supporting insurgents in the country.

Maliki said Iraq needed its neighbours' support to stem Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian violence spilling over to other countries in the region.

Two mortar rounds crashed near the conference building shortly after talks began, and a suicide car bomber killed six Iraqi soldiers and wounded about 20 others in another day of violence in the capital.

Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said at the end of the meeeting the talks had achieved good results and that U.S. and Iranian delegates did engage in discussions but only about their relations in Iraq.

"The meeting was constructive and positive in fact in its atmosphere and the composition," Zebari told a news conference. "The issues discussed in the meeting were totally focused on Iraq's security and stability."

The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, said U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would attend a planned ministerial meeting of regional and world powers on Iraq expected to be held in Istanbul in April.

He said he talked directly to Iranian delegates as well as in a group setting but the top Iranian official said he had no one-to-one talks with U.S. officials during the meeting.

The conference brought together mid-level officials from Iraq's neighbours, the permanent U.N. Security Council members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- and Arab countries.

"There were no one-to-one meetings, everything was in the framework of the meeting," Abbas Araghchi, Iran's deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, told a news conference. "There were no direct talks between us and the Americans." He described the discussions as constructive.

He called on U.S. troops to withdraw from the country, saying they were fuelling a cycle of violence.

But U.S. President George W. Bush said on Saturday he had approved adding 4,400 more U.S. troops to a force buildup of 21,500 extra troops to try to stabilise Baghdad and the violent Anbar province.

Of the 4,400 troops, 2,400 would be military police to handle an anticipated increase in Iraqi detainees, a U.S. official said.

FOMENTING VIOLENCE

Iraq called the meeting to rally regional support to stop the sectarian violence threatening to tear the country apart, has killed tens of thousands and driven some 2 million abroad since a U.S.-led invasion four years ago toppled Saddam Hussein.

Maliki said all those with a stake in peace of the Middle East should stand firm against terrorism in Iraq.

"Confronting terrorism means halting any form of financial support and media or religious backing, as well as logistical support and the flow of arms and men who transform themselves into bombs that kill our children, women and elders, and destroy our mosques and churches," he said.

Washington has accused Iran and Syria of fomenting violence in Iraq, charges both countries deny. Security officials in the region say Sunni extremists from neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Syria are also entering Iraq.

Iran is a key ally of the Shi'ite majority in Iraq, while Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Arab states have been traditional allies of the Sunni minority.

Khalilzad urged Iraq's neighbours to do more to stop the flow of fighters, weapons and sectarian propaganda contributing to the violence, saying the future of Iraq and the Middle East was the defining issue of the moment.

"No country represented at the table would benefit from a disintegrated Iraq; indeed, all would suffer badly," he said.

Besides finding ways to stop the killings in Iraq, the meeting was a rare opportunity for old foes the United States, Iran and Syria to sit at the same table.

Washington, which has no diplomatic relations with Iran, has had contacts with Iranian officials in group settings, including as recently as September, but has resisted bilateral talks.

The United States has diplomatic relations with Syria but withdrew its ambassador to Damascus in early 2005 and has not had high-level contacts for the past two years.

Iranian delegates demanded the release of several Iranians captured by U.S. forces in Iraq in recent months, while U.S. diplomats urged all countries present to work harder to support the political process in Iraq, a source at the talks said.

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