US President George W. Bush says he is trying to determine if Iran was involved in the September 11th plot and has accused the Iranian government of harbouring al Qaeda leaders.
"We want to know all of the facts," Mr Bush insisted yesterday when asked about reports that at least eight of the 19 hijackers passed through Iran before attacking the United States.
A statement from Iran yesterday claimed it had rid itself of al-Qaeda elements.
The US commission investigating the September 11th attacks will detail these and other al-Qaeda links to Iran in its final report this week, raising new questions about why Mr Bush turned his focus to Iraq soon after September 11th, 2001.
The commission has found more al-Qaeda contacts with Iran than with Iraq, officials said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said there was "no evidence that there was any official involvement between Iran and the September 11 attacks".
But Mr Bush said the case was not closed. "We will continue to look and see if the Iranians were involved. . . . As to direct connections with September 11, we're digging into the facts to determine if there was one," he said.
Mr Bush said Iran, which he branded part of an "axis of evil" along with Iraq and North Korea, was "harbouring al-Qaeda leadership." He urged Tehran to have them "turned over to their respective countries" of origin.
"If the Iranians would like to have better relations with the United States there are some things they must do," including halting the country's alleged nuclear weapons program and support for terrorism, Mr Bush said.
Iran acknowledges some of the September 11th attackers may have passed through illegally, but said it had since tightened border controls. It said any attempts to tie the country to al-Qaeda, the militant network which carried out the attacks, were part of US election-year "news propaganda."
The US intelligence community has been harshly criticised for overstating the Iraqi threat before the war, leading to calls for its overhaul and for the creation of a Cabinet-level intelligence czar.