Iran denies Blair's charge of Iraq meddling

Iran rejected on Friday the accusations by British Prime Minister Tony Blair that it was supplying Iraqi insurgents with bombs that have killed British troops.

"Iran has no motive for intervening in the domestic affairs of Iraq," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in a statement read on state television.

"The accusations are baseless. Blair is accusing others to cover up Britain's failure to provide security in Iraq," Asefi added.

Blair had accused Iran on Thursday of interfering in Iraq, saying that new explosive devices used "not just against British troops but elsewhere in Iraq ... lead us either to Iranian elements or to Hezbollah," the Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon.

Both the Iranian Ambassador to London Seyed Mohammad Hossein Adeli, and Hezbollah denied the allegation in separate statements.

A day earlier, a senior British official said there was evidence that Iran's Revolutionary Guard had given Iraqi insurgents armour-piercing bombs which had killed eight British troops since May.

Asefi said that the presence of British and other foreign forces in Iraq is the main reason for the insurgency and insecurity in the country. Iran's interests would be served by a stable and secure Iraq, the television quoted him as saying.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said his government hopes to discuss the allegations with Iran.

"We look to the Iranian Government to sit down with us, hear what we have to say and take action where appropriate," Straw said on Thursday.

Blair said the accusations were not proven but worrying. He also said the bombs may have been an attempt by Iran to intimidate Britain over its tough stance in nuclear talks.

"What is clear is that there have been new explosive devices used not just against British forces but elsewhere in Iraq. The particular nature of those devices leads us either to Iranian elements or to Hizbollah," Blair told a news conference after meeting Iraq's President Jalal Talabani.

"However we cannot be certain of this at the present time."

Friendly relations

Talabani, who is a Kurd, said the Iraqi Government would investigate the charges.

However, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari, a Shi'ite Muslim, denied that Shi'ite Iran was interfering in Iraq.

"Such accusations are baseless and we do not agree with them at all," Jaafari told Iranian state television. "Relations between Iran and Iraq are currently very friendly and strong and expanding. We are proud of the situation.

"Some people want to harm our existing friendly relations with Iran. But we will not let them do so," he said.

Eight British soldiers have been killed by roadside bombs since May. Both British and US commanders say recent attacks in Iraq have used "shaped charges" with greater killing power and that this may have required outside expertise.

The Iranian- and Syrian-backed Shi'ite group Hizbollah has used similar devices against Israeli troops in Lebanon, the British official said, prompting suspicion of an Iranian link.

Britain and the United States have accused Iran of meddling in Iraq for many months, but the accusations of helping provide deadly explosives are more specific than in the past.

They come at a time when Teheran is quarrelling with the West over a nuclear programme it says is peaceful but which Western countries say is aimed at developing atomic weapons.

Source: China Daily