Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi warned US troops not to violate the "red line" of its border with Iraq, and voiced alarm over a reported ceasefire deal between the US and the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen armed opposition group.Saying US forces on the border were "not a new phenomenon" since the beginning of the war on Iraq, Kharazi added, "it is clear that we are going to defend our frontiers; the red line passes along the line of our borders."

Kharazi also classed as "baseless" allegations from Washington that Iranian agents were seeking to infiltrate Iraq to push Shiite Muslim Iran's brand of Islamic government.

The New York Times, citing US officials, reported that Iran-trained agents were crossing into southern Iraq to promote friendly Shiite clerics.

The unidentified officials told the daily that, based on intelligence reports, some agents were members of the Badr Brigade, the military wing of an Iraqi exile group operating from Iran, as well as irregular members of a special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

But Kharazi dismissed Iranian infiltration of the Badr Brigade, the armed wing of the Iran-based Supreme Assembly for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SAIRI).

"The Badr Brigade is an Iraqi movement and does not include any Iranian. Every Iraqi has the right to be in Iraq and play a role in determining the future regime of Iraq," he asserted.

"There is no Iranian interference in Iraq's internal affairs," he added.

Kharazi also voiced concern over a reported deal between Washington and the Iraq-based People's Mujahedeen guerrillas -- officially considered a "terrorist organisation" by the United States, the European Union and Iran.

"If this news that they can stay there and keep their arms is correct, this will expose the Amercian's plans for the region and it would be contrary to international law. The United States should be responsible for this," Kharazi said at a joint press conference with his French coupterpart Dominique de Villepin.

The US military has confirmed it had reached a ceasefire agreement with the Iranian armed opposition group, although a spokesman for the group told AFP at their military base that the deal included allowing the militia to keep its arms, stay in Iraq and continue its fight against Iran's clerical regime.

However, officials at the US Central Command war headquarters in Qatar have repeatedly refused to comment on the Mujahedeen claim that the ceasefire deal allows them to keep their arms.

This has been seen as an early sign that Washington may be looking to recast the mujahedeen -- which is believed to have thousands of soldiers in Iraq -- as "freedom fighters".

The movement was given sanctuary by Saddam Hussein in 1986 after being driven out of Iran in the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

PHOTO CAPTION

U.S. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks briefs the media Coalition Central Command in Qatar April 17, 2003. Brooks said U.S. forces had been attacking fighters of the Iranian opposition Mujahideen i-Khalq in Iraq , but hoped to arrange a cease-fire with them in the next few days. 'We know that there's a presence of the Mujahideen i-Khalq inside of Iraq and indeed we have been targeting them for some time,' Brooks said. Photo by Andrew Winning/Reuters