In a detailed press statement, the group said the Islamic republic's forces had moved 46 army and elite Revolutionary Guards brigades equipped with tanks and missiles to the border with Iraq in the past 10 days.

It also alleged men of the Badr Brigades, the armed wing of the Iran-based Shiite Iraqi opposition group, the Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, had infiltrated across the border, in defiance of US warnings.

In a separate statement, the Mujahadeen denied it was taking any part in the US-led campaign to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, and described Tehran's hopes that coalition forces would destroy its bases as "wishful thinking."

"The presence of a part of Mujahadeen forces along the Iran-Iraq frontier is only for the purpose of overthrowing the clerical regime and establishing democracy in Iran", the statement said.

It denied ever being involved in Iraq's internal affairs.

The People's Mujahedeen were instrumental in the overthrow of the Shah of Iran in 1979 but were later forced out of the country by the Islamic regime and set up camp in Iraq, where they boast several bases and thousands of fighting men.

In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States the group was tagged a terrorist organisation by Washington and the European Union, an allegation it also strongly denies, saying it is a legitimate resistance movement.

Mujahadeen spokesman Ali Safavi told AFP Tuesday that so far no Mujahadeen bases had been targeted by the US-led coalition forces advancing into Iraq, but he refused to say what the movement might do if the United States secures its grip on the country.

"We are neutral in this war," he said. "We will wait and see what happens."

SPACE.WIRE