Iran on Sunday said it was ready to consider requests from its arch-enemy the United States to hold unprecedented talks over Iraq, even though a similar move came to nothing earlier this year.
"If we receive an official request, we are ready to examine it," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters.
Any such contact would mark a break in a near three-decade pause in open bilateral contacts between US and Iranian officials following the country's 1979 Islamic revolution.
In March this year Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador in Baghdad, made an offer to Tehran to hold talks on quelling the deadly unrest that has been plaguing Iraq since the US-led invasion in 2003.
Emphasising that any such contacts would have no consequence for bilateral relations frozen since 1980, Khalilzad said at the time he was looking to encourage Iran to play a positive role in Iraq and steer clear of interference.
The United States, which accuses Iran of sponsoring terrorism and seeking to manufacture a nuclear bomb, insisted that any such talks would be limited solely to the situation in Iraq.
Despite initial expressions of willingness from Iranian officials, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected that overture, saying that US "behaviour" was not good.
But Hosseini said on Sunday the door remained open for talks.
"At the current time, some American and Iraqi officials have raised the question of a dialogue. If we receive such a request we are ready to examine it again."
Hosseini said that "as far as bilateral relations is concerned, the position of Iran has not changed", maintaining Tehran's refusal to consider diplomatic relations if the US stance towards the Islamic republic does not change.
"We have clearly said that we were ready to examine a request for dialogue on regional issues," he added.
It remains to be seen whether the United States is itself willing to renew the offer, with the verbal war of words between Washington and Tehran as vehement as ever and tension rising over the Iranian nuclear programme.
But Hosseini's comments also come at a time when the US is mired in mounting sectarian bloodshed and deadly attacks on its troops in Iraq, prompting calls for a rapid about-turn in its strategy.
According to newspaper reports, a special panel on Iraq created by the US Congress and led by former secretary of state James Baker is expected to recommend that President George W. Bush bring Iran and Syria into a joint effort to stop the fighting.
Iran has emerged as a major ally of the government in Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein, and Washington remains deeply suspicious of the Islamic republic's influence in the country.
It accuses Iran of providing assistance to militant groups and interfering in Iraq, charges Tehran denies.
The United States cut diplomatic ties with Iran as a result of the seizure by Iranian students of the US embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, shortly after the Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed Shah.