UAE frees Iran sailors, says Ahmadinejad to visit

ABU DHABI, May 9 (Reuters) The United Arab Emirates said today it will free 12 detained Iranian sailors in an apparent goodwill gesture on the eve of a visit by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the Gulf Arab state.

The visit would be the first by an Iranian head of state to the US-allied UAE.

''On the occasion of the visit of the president of the Islamic Republic of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to the UAE, it was decided to release the 12 Iranian sailors arrested in UAE commercial waters,'' the official UAE news agency said.

It did not say when the visit would take place and officials at the Iranian president's office were not immediately available for comment.

A source familiar with the issue said Ahmadinejad would arrive in Abu Dhabi on Saturday or Sunday after a visit to Oman.

Abu Dhabi and Tehran have full diplomatic ties and strong trade links despite a three-decade dispute over three strategic islands in the Gulf, through which a third of the world's sea-borne crude oil supplies pass.

Iran's ISNA news agency reported on Tuesday the commercial divers had been detained by the UAE.

It quoted an Iranian Foreign Ministry official as saying the men were detained in an area north of the Gulf island of Abu Musa. The official described their detention as ''completely illegal''.

Abu Musa is one of three disputed islands that the UAE claims and which Iran controls.

The divers were seeking to retrieve goods from a ship that sank in March on its way from Dubai to an Iranian port in the northern Gulf, ISNA said.

REUTERS PJ PM2128