Spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said Moscow would continue to work with Iraqi ambassador Abbas Khalaf until a new Baghdad regime decides to send a new envoy.

"Throughout the decades, our government held diplomatic relations with various regimes that arose in Iraq," Yakovenko said in a statement.

"As to the current ambassador to Moscow, this question must be decided by the Iraqis themselves," said the spokesman.

Russia, which has furiously opposed the US-led campaign in Iraq, had earlier turned down a US request to expel senior Iraqi officials in Moscow, which Washington suspected were working as spies.

SPACE.WIRE