Iran is demanding the immediate release of five Iranians held by U.S. forces in Iraq, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Sunday, adding that the five are diplomats.

The five were arrested on Thursday in the northern Iraqi town of Arbil and the U.S. military has accused them of links to an Iranian Revolutionary Guard group that provides weapons to Iraqi insurgents.

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"Americans should immediately release the five Iranians and pay compensation for the damages they caused to our office in Arbil," Mohammad Ali Hosseini told a weekly news conference, adding the five were "involved in consulate affairs".

"Their activities were legal and in the framework of law," Hosseini said when asked whether the five Iranians were members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards.

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he would send thousands more U.S. troops to Iraq and pledged to interrupt a "flow of support" to insurgents from Iran.

Tehran denies backing the insurgency and blames U.S. troops for the violence and for stoking tensions between Iraq's Shi'ite and Sunni Muslims.