(Adds comments by U.S. National Security Adviser)

By Edmund Blair

TEHRAN, Nov 27 (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Monday Iran would do whatever it could to help provide security to Iraq amid warnings the country was on the brink of civil war.

The White House, acknowledging violence in Iraq was in a "new phase", said the issue of talking to Iran and Syria about Iraq was likely to be raised at a meeting this week between President George W. Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The United States is facing calls to engage Tehran to help end the bloodshed, which U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said had pushed Iraq closer to civil war.

Bush and Maliki are due to meet in Jordan on Wednesday.

"I think you're going to find that Prime Minister Maliki is going to bring that (talking to Iran and Syria) up with the president," U.S. National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters accompanying Bush to the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

Ahmadinejad made his pledge to help Iraq at the start of a visit to Iran by Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, whose trip was delayed because of a curfew imposed after Thursday's bombing in a Shi'ite Muslim stronghold of Baghdad which killed 202 people. The curfew was lifted on Monday.

"The Iranian nation and government will definitely stand beside their brother, Iraq, and any help the government and nation of Iran can give to strengthen security in Iraq will be given," Ahmadinejad said, Iran's ISNA news agency reported.

"We have no limitation for cooperation in any field,

Political analysts said Iran may try to use the talks Talabani to show off its influence to Washington and bolster its position ahead of any dialogue with its old enemy. They also said Iran's ability to stem the bloodshed in Iraq was limited.

U.S. officials say the violence is fuelled by Iran's backing for Shi'ite groups and its weapons exports. Iran denies the charge.

IMPROVING IRAN-IRAQ TIES

Talabani said he would discuss improving ties between the neighbours, which fought an eight-year war in the 1980s.

"In this trip, we will also talk about Iraq's security file because Iraq needs the comprehensive assistance of Iran to fight terrorism and create stability," ISNA quoted Talabani as saying.

The atmosphere in Baghdad was nervous as the curfew ended. Nerves frayed on fears of a new wave of blood-letting after Thursday's bombing -- the worst since the U.S. invasion in 2003.

Annan, making a rare comment on the situation, said he believed Iraq was nearly in civil war -- something Iraqi and U.S. politicians have refused to say despite mounting deaths.

"Given the developments on the ground, unless something is done drastically and urgently to arrest the deteriorating situation, we could be there. In fact we are almost there," Annan told reporters in response to a question.

The White House continued to refuse to use the term. "The Iraqi's don't talk of it as civil war," Hadley said.

But he acknowledged: "We're clearly in a new phase characterised by this increasing sectarian violence that requires us obviously to adapt to that new phase and these two leaders need to be talking about how to do that."

King Abdullah of Jordan, who will host the summit between Maliki and Bush, said "something dramatic" must come out of it because Iraq was "beginning to spiral out of control".

The New York Times said a draft report to be debated by the Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by former secretary of state James Baker and which is preparing eagerly awaited proposals on a new direction in Iraq, would urge an aggressive regional diplomatic initiative to include direct talks with Iran and Syria.

The group's recommendations will be sent to the White House, which is considering a change in strategy in Iraq to allow it to start pulling out some of its 140,000 troops. (Additional reporting by Aseel Kami, Ross Colvin in Baghdad, David Clarke in London and Lisa Jucca in Milan, Irwin Arieff in New York, Caren Bohan in Tallinn)

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