Iran is ready to cooperate with U.S. President Barack Obama if the United States changes its policies and practices in the region, Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Thursday.

"We do believe that if the new administration of the United States, as Mr. Obama said, is going to change its policies, not in saying but in practice, definitely they will find the region in a cooperative approach and reaction. And Iran is not excluded from this general understanding in our region," Mottaki said at a panel before the World Economic Forum.

U.S.-Iranian relations under the Bush administration were frozen. But a British newspaper reported on Thursday that the U.S. is drafting a letter to Iran to pave the way for face-to-face talks, and a State Department official said that U.S. policy toward Iran was under review.

Asked about U.S. relations, Mottaki welcomed the new U.S. President's theme of change, upon which he ran his election campaign.

He said the Middle East wanted to see how that manifests itself.

"All the countries in the region are waiting (to see) how this change is going to introduce itself. Is it a change strategically? Is it a change in tactics?" he said, adding that Iran also has taken note of U.S. President Barack Obama's intention to withdraw troops from Iraq and believes he should pull out of Afghanistan too.

Mottaki said that Obama had "courage" to say which of the policies of Bush he disagreed with and said his approach marked a move away from an era of "might equals right".

"We are in a turning point. We are at a milestone now," he said, Reuters reports.