More Iraqi POWs released

Some men had been held for almost two decades

Iran has released 450 Iraqi prisoners captured during the eight-year war between the two countries.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said the releases brought the total number of Iraqis set free since March to nearly 3,400.

The agency said nearly 10,000 POWs had returned to Iraq since the end of the war in 1988, but a further 6,700 living in Iran had refused to be repatriated.

The Iranian news agency IRNA said the release was "a humanitarian gesture".

Correspondents say most of the prisoners released by Iran in the past three months were not registered by the ICRC and were long thought by the Iraqi authorities and their families to have died.

The handover took place under the auspices of the ICRC at the Mundharieh-Khosravi checkpoint on the two countries' common border late on Wednesday.

Stumbling block

The issue of POWs is a key stumbling block to restoring ties between Iran and Iraq, 12 years after they stopped fighting.

Since a UN-brokered cease-fire in 1988, the two former foes have repatriated about 100,000 prisoners.

But they have not signed a peace treaty and efforts to normalise relations have met with little success.

Iraq says Iran is still holding thousands more Iraqi prisoners and accuses Tehran of turning down its pleas for normal ties.

Iran in turn says Iraq keeps thousands of Iranian prisoners and provides refuge to armed Iranian exiles in military camps near the border.

The war cost hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides.