Iran complains to UN over diplomats' arrest - TV

TEHRAN, Jan 20 (Reuters) Iran has complained to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon about the arrest by US troops of five Iranian diplomats, who Washington says were helping militants in Iraq, state television reported today.

US soldiers seized the men in a raid on an Iranian government office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil on January 11, hours after U.S. President George W Bush pledged to crack down on the ''flow of support'' from Iran to Iraqi militants.

''Iran officially complained, by sending a letter to the UN Secretary-General, about America's abduction of Iranian diplomats in Arbil,'' state television said.

The letter said the arrests were illegal and called for a response from the U.N. Security Council.

''The Islamic Republic of Iran holds America responsible for the consequences of this act and demands the immediate release of the consulate officers,'' the letter read, according to the television station.

Washington regularly accuses Iran of encouraging violence in Iraq. Tehran dismisses the charge, countering that US forces are destabilising the country.

Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted the Iranian ambassador to Baghdad, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, as saying the Iraqi government had given assurances that the five diplomats would be released this week.

The arrests on January 11 were the second such detentions in Iraq in a month, and have further heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran, which are at loggerheads over Iran's nuclear programme.

REUTERS MS VV1537