Reporter Saberi returns to Fargo

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Roxana Saberi says she hopes relations between the US and Iran can improve

Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi has arrived in her hometown of Fargo, North Dakota two weeks after being freed from an Iranian jail.

"I would have never ever left Fargo if I had known what would happen," she joked to the dozens of people who welcomed her at Fargo airport.

With her release eliminating one obstacle between Iran and the US, she hoped relations could improve.

Ms Saberi spent four months in prison on spying charges, which she denied.

She was originally arrested and accused of buying alcohol, and later of working as a reporter without a valid press card.

Then the spying charge was introduced and she was sentenced to eight years after a trial held behind closed doors.

The term was cut on appeal to a two-year suspended sentence.

Following her release, one of her lawyers said she had been convicted of spying for the US partly because she had obtained a classified document .

Ms Saberi, who is 32, has worked as a freelance journalist for news organisations including the BBC and National Public Radio (NPR).