Countries bordering Iraq and those with a stake in its future are meeting in Egypt today and tomorrow to discuss the conflict and preventing it from sucking in Iraq's neighbours.
While diplomats are skeptical security can improve inside Iraq in the short term, some hope the meeting will increase pressure to end external support for different factions and instead emphasise programmes to help rebuild the country.
The highlight of the two days of talks would be a meeting on the sidelines between US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, a first at this level since the Bush administration took office in 2001.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said he expected Ms Rice to have talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh with Mr Mottaki and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem.
Such meetings would mark a reversal of policy by the Bush administration, which rejected last year a high-level commission's recommendation that it open a dialogue with the two governments to help ease the situation in Iraq.
But the United States has ruled out what Ms Rice called "full-scale negotiations" with Iran, widely regarded as the neighbouring country most able to influence events inside Iraq.
The first day of talks will look at a project dubbed the Iraqi Compact - a five-year plan offering Iraq financial, political and technical support in return for various reforms.
The second day will bring together Iraq and its immediate neighbours - Iran, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, together with Egypt as host.