Hard-line students burned US flags today and effigies of US President George Bush to mark the 25th anniversary of the takeover of the US Embassy in Tehran.

An Iranian fighter plane has crashed near an air base in the city of Isfahan in central Iran, killing the two pilots on board, the air force said.

Hundreds of hard-line students besieged the British Embassy in Tehran today in protest at the occupation of neighbouring Iraq.

Iran has ended negotiations with the United States about how to bring calm to Iraq because they were going nowhere, Iran’s foreign minister said tonight, in a rare acknowledgement of official talks with Washington.