Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, pressing Arab nations for financial and political support of Iraq, said Monday that Baghdad’s neighbors had taken a “good step forward” by pledging to do more to include the country in regional affairs.

Bahrain’s foreign minister said Iraq, at the meetings of Persian Gulf states here, had answered many of its neighbors’ concerns about a variety of issues. The minister, Sheik Khalid bin-Khalifa, said Iraq will now be included in future such meetings as a matter of course.

“That’s a very good step forward for the reintegration of Iraq into regional affairs,” Rice told a news conference with Bin-Khalifa at her side.

The Bush administration has challenged Arab states to answer security improvements and political advances in Iraq with financial and political support, and Rice said there are few excuses left for delay. She is on a three-day Mideast trip, and on Sunday visited Baghdad, where she said she was encouraged despite a recent uptick in violence.

Bin-Khalifa said Iraq’s foreign minister and Rice together had given encouraging assurances about Iraq’s progress at meetings and a luncheon Monday.

“When we first started this meeting today we had questions,” he said.

A larger gathering of Arab states and Iraq’s international backers is planned for Tuesday in Kuwait. Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, flying to Kuwait on Monday, told The Associated Press that he would speak frankly to Arab diplomats.

“There are countries that support the political process and are opening embassies here,” he said, a reference to unfulfilled pledges from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. “We need the others to open embassies here, too. There are some nations that don’t recognize our political process and ... are inciting strife,” he continued. “I am bewildered by the position of these nations.”