Speaking Thursday to reporters at the White House, President Bush also said he expects Iran to hand over any members of Osama Ben Laden's Al-Qa’eda terrorists who might have fled to Iran and taken refuse there.

His blunt comments reflect US concerns that Iran is trying to stir unrest in Afghanistan in order to prevent the formation of a Turkey-type secular regime in Kabol, in the one hand and information that Tehran might have offered safe haven to "Al-Qa’eda" fighters fleeing US and allied military troops there, analysts commented.

"Our nation, in our fight against terrorism, will uphold the doctrine of either you're with us or against us and Iran must be a contributor in the war against terror" Mr Bush said during an Oval Office briefing.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran gives a special importance to the return of peace and stability to Afghanistan and has operated actively in this direction" the Ministry’s senior spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said, confirming also that Iran considers the "interference and presence of foreign forces in Afghanistan as the cause of instability".

"The fundamental policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran on Afghanistan is based on the protection of that country's independence", the official Iranian news agency IRNA quoted him as saying, adding "Iran believes that the Afghan people should determine their own destiny in full independence" underlining that Tehran considers the present Afghan interim government as being "imposed" by the Americans.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran, before the international community became aware of terrorist groups' threats in Afghanistan, had been using all possibilities at its disposal to combat terrorism. Thus, the fundamental policy of the Islamic Republic of Iran has focused on preventing the entry of Al-Qa’eda members into its territory since the recent crisis in Afghanistan started", he said.

IRNA also quoted Afghan’s interim Prime Minister Hamid Karzai as having told the visiting Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Sadeq Kharrazi that the Afghan people would "never forget that Iran stood by Afghanistan in its most difficult hours".

"Because Iran, like Pakistan, has "a big long border" with Afghanistan, he said, some of the leadership has likely fled west and crossed into the neighbouring Muslim state", he further said.

According to this information, the former president flew to Mash-had, which is close to the Afghan borders, in a private plane and after preying at the imam Reza’s shrine, returned to Tehran the same evening, accompanied by some 80 to 90 "heavy turbaned" Afghan and Arab-looking people who, on their arrival to the capital, were immediately divided in several groups and taken to undisclosed destination escorted by Pasdarn (Revolutionary Guards).

"We don't know who they were, but they must be big fishes to be taken care by Mr. Rafsanjani", the source told Iran Press Service, requesting anonymity.

Other US officials also said that the trail in the worldwide hunt Ben Laden is leading to Iran, adding that airline ticket receipts uncovered in the Organisation’s hideouts in the Tora Bora mountains indicate that foreign fighters entered Afghanistan after travelling through Tehran International Airport.

"What brought President Bush to make such a terrible stand against Iran is a series of recent declarations, statements and deeds by the Islamic Republic, starting with Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani’s nuclear threats against Israel, harsh anti-American statements and denunciation of American presence in Afghanistan (by the regime’s leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i) and lately the shipping of arms for Palestinian extremists", commented Dr Mehdi Mozzaffari, a professor on international politics at the Copenhagen University, interviewed Thursday by the Persian service of Radio France Internationale (RFI).

In a 14 December Friday sermon, Mr. Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who is the Islamic Republic’s number two man after the leader had said "if a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world".

Mr. Mozzaffari and other Iranian scholars and analysts in Tehran said the Iranian clerics were "horrified" at the prospect of a secular, democratic regime installed in Kabol, for such a system in neighbouring Afghanistan would "seriously menace the very existence and raison d’etre of the Islamic Republic".

In his first televised address to the nation since he was sworn in for a six-month term on 22 December the Afghan interim Premier Hamid Karzai said the new constitution would guarantee "private enterprise, free market rule, freedom of speech and the press as well as political and social liberties and human rights.

Analysts said though Iran Sh’ia Muslim clerics were opposed to the Sunni Taleban and supported the Northern Alliance, but they have shifted position because of the staunch anti-US policy dictated by Ayatollah Khameneh’i who considers the American presence in Afghanistan as an encouragement for the Iranian democratic opposition to his regime.

The New York Times, citing Pentagon and intelligence officials, reported Thursday that Washington was concerned that Iran had sheltered "small numbers" of fleeing Al-Qa’eda fighters and was seeking to undermine US interests.

American intelligence shows that Iran is giving safe haven to small numbers of Al Qa’eda fighters fleeing Afghanistan, with the view that Al Qaeda will fight to weaken Western influence, the paper quoted Pentagon officials.

United States Special Forces around Herat, in north-western Afghanistan, report that Iranian agents are infiltrating the area, threatening some tribal leaders and bribing other local leaders to undermine American-backed programs in one of the most lawless provinces of Afghanistan.

Speaking to the Poshtoon and Persian service of the BBC, Mr. Poshtoon openly accused "high-ranking" officers of the Iranian revolutionary guards of "overt and covert seditious operations and interference" in Heart, Helmand and Zabol provinces, all situated at the Iranian borders.

The provinces and localities named by Mr. Poshtoon as being subject of "Iranian provocations" are ruled by Esma’il Khan, a veteran Afghan warlord who lived in Mash-had, the capital city of the Iranian north-eastern province of Khorasan during the Taleban era and is very close to the Iranian leadership.

Iran is listed by the State Department as the world's most active state supporter of terrorism, largely because it supports the Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, as well as the Lebanese Hezbollah organisation.

"It seems like it's up to him to make these decisions", he told reporters.

Both the Iranians and the PA have denied any involvement in the shipment, but Washington has demanded an "urgent and full explanation" from Arafat on the smuggling operation. ENDS BUSH WARNS IRAN 10102