US military seeks to clarify Iran govt comments

BAGHDAD, Feb 14 (Reuters) The US military in Iraq today seemed to distance itself from comments made by a US defence official at the weekend that implicated the ''highest levels'' of Tehran's government in arming Iraqi militants.

The official made the comments at a briefing on Sunday at which journalists were shown what US officials said were weapons and explosive devices of Iranian origin that have been used to kill at least 170 US soldiers in Iraq.

The official, a defence analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Qod Forces was training and funding Iraqi militants and was getting its orders from the ''highest levels'' of the Iranian government.

US military spokesman in Iraq Major General William Caldwell said in Baghdad today that the intention of Sunday's briefing had not been to implicate the Iranian government but to present evidence of Iranian involvement in Iraq's violence.

''This was not the intention behind the briefing. He (the analyst) was responding to questions and trying to be informative,'' Caldwell told a news briefing.

He said the US military had decided to go public about Iran's involvement in Iraq because Tehran had ignored previous appeals from Washington not to meddle in its neighbour's affairs.

The head of the US military's joint chiefs of staff, Marine Corps General Peter Pace yesterday said that the Iranian weapons found in Iraq did not mean the ''Iranian government per se ... is directly involved in doing this''.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied on Monday that Iran was supplying sophisticated weapons to Iraqi militants and said peace would return to Iraq only when US and other foreign forces leave.

REUTERS KD KN1951