"There are some al-Qa’dea members in the country, but they are still to be investigated and identified", Foreign Affairs Ministry senior Spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi confirmed on Monday.

"The Washington Post" and the London-based "The Guardian" both reported Sunday that alarmed by intelligence reports suggesting that some senior al-Qa’eda operatives hiding in Iran had a role in the May 12 suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia; the Bush Administration has suspended contacts with Iran and will meet Tuesday at the White House with senior British envoys to discuss the evolving strategy toward the Islamic Republic.

"Pentagon officials are pressing hard for public and private actions that they believe could lead to the toppling of the government through a popular uprising and the State Department, which had encouraged some form of engagement with the Iranians, appears inclined to accept such a policy, especially if Iran does not take any visible steps to deal with the suspected al-Qa’eda operatives before Tuesday", the papers quoted un-identified American officials.

"The state department and Britain have objected to the plan, saying that it would backfire, undermining the moderates around President Mohamed Khatami", The Guardian wrote, oblivion of the fact that both Mr. Khatami and the so-called reformists have lost their popularity with the Iranian people, as proved in the last city and rural elections, where the reformers were badly defeated at the polls.

"The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, has been to Tehran several times and believes that British and European engagement in Iran has paid dividends in moderating Tehran's behaviour towards the west", the British newspaper added.

Talking to reporters, Mr. Asefi said that any al-Qa’eda member who is caught trying to enter Iranian territory will be arrested, investigated and expelled and that a number of the organisation’s members are currently under investigation in the country.

Earlier, Hojjatoleslam Hasan Rohani, the influential Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security (SCNS), while admitting to the presence in Iran of "some al-Qa’eda members" had however reiterated that those who would be confirmed as members of the network would not be extradited to the United States, since the two countries have no extradition treaty.

Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld had accused Iran of harbouring al Qa’eda members, saying: "There's no question but that there have been and are today senior al-Qa'eda leaders in Iran, and they are busy", Rumsfeld insisted.

The talks, held under the UN, Germany and Italian sponsorship were suspended by Washington after receiving intelligence reports that some senior al-Qa’eda people, including Seyfol Adel, an Egyptian, were hiding somewhere in Iran from where they had planned the 16 May Riyadh explosions that killed 34 people, among them 7 Americans.

An informed Iranian source close to the meetings had told the influential French daily "Le Monde" last week that the Geneva talks were held with the presence of representatives from the UN and were concerning "issues of mutual interests, such as the situation in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, but never the relations and even dialogue between Tehran and Washington".

Flynt Leverett, who recently left the White House to join the Brookings, had held lengthy discussions with Mr. Mohsen Reza’i, the Secretary of the powerful Expediency Council and a former Commander of the Revolutionary Guards.

Dr. Sadeq Ziba Kalam, a noted Iranian scholar who participated at the Athens’ conference, while confirming that Mr. Reza’i had talked to American participants on the "sidelines" of the event, described the discussions as "very positive". "Mr Reza’i, who had come to the conference as a private scholar interested in international and regional politics, had deeply impressed his American interlocutors", he said.

"It is imprudent to assume that the Islamic Republic will collapse like a house of cards in a time frame that is going to be meaningful to us", both The Washington Post and The Guardian quoted Mr. Leverett as having said "What it means is we will end up with an Iran that has nuclear weapons and no dialogue with the United States with regard to our terrorist concerns", he observed.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran has never shown leniency towards members of al-Qa’eda so far", an embarrassed and visibly confused spokesman repeated what Mr. Rohani had said earlier, adding: "We do not know who these are. How can we say that they are senior members of al-Qaeda or not?", the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported from the press conference.

Asked whether al-Qa’eda members have recently been arrested in the country, Mr. Asefi said some suspected al-Qa’eda members have managed to enter Iranian territory illegally because of the country's long borders, but that these have been arrested, deported or returned to their home country.

"Some of them who were holding dual citizenships were sent to some Arab states", he declared, adding that the Iran would show "no leniency" towards terrorists.

"Iran started fighting this group even before the 11 September events when Americans held friendly ties with al-Qa’eda. Since then, Iran has intensified this fight and practically demonstrated its most serious campaign against this group by arresting and evicting more than 500 members of al-Qa’eda", Mr. Rohani told the visiting Austrian Foreign Affairs Minister.