TEHRAN • Iran has said the United States is trying to shirk its own responsibility by blaming Tehran for problems in Iraq, where US forces are supporting an Iraqi government crackdown on Shia militants.

Washington accuses Tehran of stoking violence in Iraq by funding, training and equipping militants. Iran denies this.

US President George W Bush sought to bolster Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki on Friday in his battle against militants and said he wanted to send a "clear message" to Iran that it could not have its way in the Middle

East states.

"Such statements are baseless, repetitive and boring, and a way of shirking the occupying (US) government's responsibilities," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohamad Ali Hosseini said in a statement responding to

Bush's remarks.

His comments were carried by the Iranian state broadcaster's website late on Friday.

"Every time America faces a serious security problem in Iraq, instead of adopting logical policies to resolve the security problem in that country, it resorts to illogical methods such as levelling accusations against others,"

Hosseini said.

Iran says the presence of US troops is to blame for Iraq's instability and says Washington should withdraw its forces. The two countries have been involved in a battle of attrition for quite some time now.