BRUSSELS: An Iranian diplomat and a NATO official have had “informal contact” for the first time in 30 years, holding discussions in Brussels about Afghanistan, NATO officials said yesterday.

“The diplomat met with Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Martin Erdmann,” chief alliance spokesman James Appathurai said.

“It was a first informal contact about the subject of Afghanistan,” he said, adding: “We have not yet programmed a second meeting.” A NATO official said the visit last week by the diplomat, who was not identified, was the first “since the regime of the Shah” of Iran, which collapsed in 1979.

He noted that “the Iranians are interested in possible cooperation on Afghanistan” to better confront the problems posed by opium production there and an influx of Afghan refugees across their border.

“There were exploratory contacts recently. Nothing of substance was discussed. It was a first informal contact between an Iranian diplomat and a representative of the secretary general,” a second NATO official added.

Earlier in the day, Iran announced that it would attend a major international meeting on Afghanistan in The Hague in Netherlands next week.

The meeting on Tuesday comes as the United States undertakes a vast review of its policies in Afghanistan, expected to be made public in coming days, and amid new efforts by Washington to reach out to Tehran.

The review puts all of Afghanistan’s neighbors, notably Pakistan, at the heart of a solution to choke off the Taleban-led insurgency, which has stopped NATO’s efforts to spread democracy and foster reconstruction.

“The fact that Iran has accepted to go to the conference in The Hague is good news and constitutes a new step in the regionalization of the Afghan issue,” Appathurai said.

A spokesman at the Iranian embassy in Brussels declined to comment immediately on the visit last week.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has no plans for a “substantive” meeting with Iranian officials at The Hague next week, the State Department said yesterday.

“There are no plans for that at this time,” said State Department spokesman Gordon Duguid when asked if Clinton planned to have a meeting with the Iranians, adding the United States hoped the Iranians would play a “positive” role in trying to stabilize Afghanistan.