Freed Iranian diplomat claims he was tortured by the CIA in Iraq

Friction between Iran and the US has taken a new twist after an Iranian diplomat freed having been seized in Iraq and held for two months accused the CIA of torturing him during his captivity. The US denied the claim.

Jalal Sharafi, freed last Tuesday on the eve of the announcement that 15 British hostages would be set free in Tehran, said the CIA questioned him about Iran's relationship with Iraq and whether it provided assistance to Iraqi groups.

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"Once they heard my response that Iran merely has official relations with the Iraqi government and officials, they intensified tortures," Mr Sharafi told Iranian state television. Mr Sharafi was seized on 4 February by uniformed gunmen in Karradah, a Shia-controlled district of Baghdad. At the time Iran alleged alleged that he had been abducted by an Iraqi military unit commanded by US forces, which the US denied.

The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said it had exerted pressure on those holding Mr Sharafi to release him, although it declined to specify who that was. However, given that the diplomat's release came just before Iran released the 15 British sailors and marines, there has been speculation - denied by Downing Street - that the events were linked.

Mr Sharafi, second in command at the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, apparently told officials he was approached by agents while shopping. They allegedly showed him Iraqi Defence Ministry identification papers and were driving American vehicles. He said they took him to a base near Baghdad airport, where he was interrogated.

On Saturday the Bush administration again denied involvement. Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said: "The Iranian propaganda machine has been in overdrive since they paraded the British sailors around on TV. This is just the latest theatrics of a government trying to deflect attention away from its own unacceptable actions."

In a separate development, Iran has warned Iraq that its failure to secure the release of five Iranians seized by US forces in January could impair relationships between the two countries. "We are serious about the way we will confront those behind the arrest of the Iranian diplomats in Iraq," Manouchehr Mottaki, the Foreign Minister, told the Fars news agency.

The US has said the men detained in northern Iraq are linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guards and were supporting militants.