Iran frees US-Iranian academic

Iran has today released an Iranian-American democracy scholar after spending four months in prison - the third time in recent weeks Tehran has set free holders of dual-citizenship it accuses of trying to stir up a revolution.

Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planning consultant with the Soros Foundation's Open Society Institute, was released late yesterday, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported today.

He was one of four Iranian-Americans charged with endangering national security - an accusation they and their employers denied.

The charges have increased tensions between the US and Iran, already high over US accusations that Iran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapon and is fuelling violence in Iraq. Iran denies both claims.

Saeed Laylaz, an Iranian political analyst, said he believed the Iranian government had released the dual citizens because they were no longer useful.

"Iran did not achieve what it expected from their imprisonment," Laylaz said. "It was not welcomed inside the country, and it worked against its interests on the international level. Their detention was abandoned as a failed project."