US Afghan envoy Richard Holbrooke had a cordial and unplanned meeting with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Mehdi Akhoundzadeh in The Hague yesterday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

Clinton told a news conference at the close of an international conference on Afghanistan: "In the course of the conference today our special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke had a brief and cordial exchange with the head of the Iranian delegation."

"It did not focus on anything substantive. It was cordial it was unplanned and they agreed to stay in touch."