British and US troops have yet to overrun any of the People's Mujahedeen's Iraqi bases, Yunesi said, but Iranian border forces had already received a flood of "repentant" militants from the group which is reviled by both Iran and the Iraqi opposition for fighting alongside the Baghdad regime in the past.

"The return of Monafeqeen (hypocrites -- the Tehan regime's standard term of abuse for the group) has accelerated in recent months," state radio quoted the minister as saying.

"For instance recently around a hundred members of the group handed themselves over to the Islamic Republic authorities."

But the People's Mujahedeen denied the claim.

"This is absolutely false," it said in a statement sent to AFP.

"No member of the Mujahedeen has returned to Iran and to the mullahs regime. The reason for such lies is, before anything else, the fear of the mullahs moribund regime from the Mujahedeen who are resolved to overthrow the religious dictatorship ruling Iran."

Yunesi promised that the regime would not press criminal charges against repentant opposition members, although they would have to respond to any civil suits.

They "can enter Iran without fear, but if they have civil cases, they will have to settle them," he said.

But the Mujahedeen also denied this claim, accusing Tehran of using "the current war to prepare the ground to launch missile, air and ground attacks against the Mujahedeen.

"At the same time, it has publicly and privately asked the United States to bomb Mojahedin bases," the statement said.

The minister said the People's Mujahedeen had kept up its campaign against the Islamic regime right up to the eve of the war, joining US-led criticism of Iran's nuclear programme.

Mujahadeen members "tried to present false information that Iran's peaceful nuclear activities were aimed at building atomic weapons", said Yunesi.

But he added that Iran had no intention of exploiting the US-led war to attack the opposition group.

"They are next door but for certain reasons we don't want to enter Iraqi soil" to fight with them, he said.

The Mujahedeen took part in the 1979 overthrow of the Shah but later fell out with the Islamic regime, fighting a brutal civil war.

During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war, the group won recognition from Baghdad as the government of Iran and the use of bases in its western neighbour.

But its role in the bloody conflict which cost some one million lives earned it the abiding hatred of the regime, against which it has continued to launch assassinations and other attacks.

SPACE.WIRE