Iraq said Thursday it would release hundreds of Iranian prisoners next week in a gesture seeking to build popular support ahead of a threatened U.S. attack. Iran said it would also be releasing hundreds of Iraqi prisoners, including some held captive since the 1980-88 war between the two countries. Details released in Baghdad and Tehran conflicted, however.

The Foreign Ministry in Baghdad said the agreement, signed Wednesday, applied to all Iraqi prisoners of war and all Iranian prisoners in Iraqi jails. Iraq does not acknowledge having Iranian prisoners of war.

The ministry said Iraq would release 349 Iranian criminals Monday and Tuesday, and Iran would release 941 Iraqi prisoners of war Thursday.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi confirmed an agreement but said Iran would release 1,241 Iraqi "prisoners and captives," and that the exchange for the 349 Iranians held in Iraq would take place simultaneously on Monday.

"That means there will be no remaining Iraqi prisoners in Iran," Asefi said, according to Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency.

Asefi also said Iran would continue to pursue the case of Iranian soldiers missing in action since the war.

Iran and Iraq have exchanged thousands of prisoners and remains of dead soldiers since the war ended with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire.

Such exchanges have become routine, but this announcement came as Iraq seeks to fan support among Muslims and Arabs whose governments it accuses of failing to do enough to support it against Washington.

Since 1998, the International Committee of the Red Cross has been trying to repatriate all the remaining POWs, but the agency has said it does not know how many people both sides were holding.

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The problem of returning POWs has damaged relations between Iraq and Iran for years. Each state has accused the other of concealing how many prisoners it