The Iranian Foreign minister, Kamal Kharazzi, has said that a group of American visitors who were attacked in Teheran at the weekend were not politicians.

Assailants shouting anti-American slogans smashed the windows of the bus carrying the Americans outside their hotel on Saturday but no-one was hurt.

Hardline newspapers have called it a political mission under the guise of tourism.

Mr Kharazzi said the visitors were American businessmen and their wives who came on their own initiative to visit tourist attractions and exmaine Iran's economic potential.

He said it was regrettable that the press had said they were politicians.