WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. attempts to engage Iran on single issues like Iraq and nuclear weapons have no chance of success unless they are part of a comprehensive approach including restoring normal relations, some U.S. experts say.

President George W. Bush... has shown no sign of bowing to growing pressure to talk directly to Tehran on Iraq. He has offered to hold talks on the nuclear issue but only if Iran first halts uranium enrichment.

But some Washington analysts argue dialogue is essential with Iran standing at the center of the most pressing U.S. foreign policy challenges.

Flynt Leverett, a Middle East expert who once worked for Bush's National Security Council, advocates a "grand bargain," offering Iran full diplomatic and economic relations and a security guarantee in return for forswearing nuclear weapons.

This was "the best of the available options for American policy," Leverett, now with the New America Foundation, told a conference hosted by the CATO Institute thinktank...

Bush has resisted even the modest step of talking with Tehran about Iraq and has shown no signs of being prepared to consider what Leverett and other analysts call "a grand bargain..."

A Council on Foreign Relations report three years ago also endorsed limited U.S. talks with Iran, arguing that tackling the full range of disputed issues -- including Iranian support for extremist groups and opposition to Arab-Israeli peace efforts -- was too hard.

Leverett said the problem with this incremental approach was that "it won't work."

Many times since 1979 Iran had shown interest in working with Washington on specific issues but U.S. policymakers let domestic politics or foreign policy considerations interfere, he said.

The Iranians "will not cooperate with us on Iraq or the nuclear issue unless it is part of a broader package" because they want a fundamentally different relationship with the United States, Leverett said...

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