The Bush administration decided this week that it will hold five seized alleged Iranian intelligence agents for several more weeks, at least, instead of freeing them quickly in the aftermath of last week's release of 15 British military personnel who had been taken by Iran, U.S. officials said Friday.

Vice President Dick Cheney's foreign policy advisers won an internal administration tussle over what to do with the men, U.S. officials confirmed on condition of anonymity. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had argued for a quicker release but was overruled, partly so as not to make the release appear part of a deal involving the British, the sources said.

The United States has held the five since they were seized in January under disputed circumstances in northern Iraq. The Bush administration has accused Iran of supplying deadly roadside bombs used against U.S. troops in Iraq and of undermining the fragile democratic government there.

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Some U.S. officials have suggested that Iran may have captured the 15 sailors and marines last month partly in hopes that Britain would ask close ally Washington to speed up release of the five. Britain has the second-largest number of troops in Iraq after the United States.

The five are classified as detainees and will be treated like other foreign detainees picked up in Iraq, one official said. That means they will be subject to periodic review of their status, a process that means they will be held certainly a good number of weeks, and possibly for several months, the official said.

U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe an internal administration decision. The decision was reported Friday on The Washington Post's Web site.

Iran has recently stepped up complaints over its personnel detained in Iraq, hinting it might boycott an international conference on Iraq unless American forces release the five alleged Revolutionary Guard agents.

U.S. troops seized the five Iranians in Kurdish northern Iraq, saying they were providing money and weapons to militants.

Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani has said American forces were really after commanders of Iran's Revolutionary Guards who were visiting Kurdish officials.

Iran claimed the men were diplomats and that the building they occupied was a diplomatic mission. The United States claims the five hold no diplomatic immunity and were properly seized.

They have not been charged with a crime and little is known about their
detention. The United States allowed the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the men but so far has not allowed visits from Iranian
representatives.

Separately, an Iranian diplomat showed off wounds on his feet Wednesday, and said they were inflicted by drills during two months of detention in Iraq. He said he was harshly interrogated by an American official when he refused to cooperate.

The United States has denied any role in the capture of Jalal Sharafi, the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Baghdad, who was seized by gunmen in Baghdad on Feb. 4. Tehran has said he was taken by an Iraqi military unit commanded by U.S. forces, an accusation repeated by several Iraqi Shiite lawmakers.

Report: Former FBI agent held by Iranian authorities
A former FBI agent is being held by Iranian authorities, the Financial Times reported on Friday, but U.S. officials said they were still unable to verify the whereabouts of the missing American.

Florida resident and ex-FBI agent Robert Levinson went missing while on a visit to the Gulf island of Kish in Iran early in March. His family has not heard from him since and U.S. officials said they do not have any valid leads.

Diplomats fear the case of Levinson could mark a new twist in apparent tit-for-tat detentions involving the United States, Britain and Iran, which began with the detention by U.S. forces in Iraq of five Iranians in January and Iran's capture of the 15 British sailors.

The Financial Times quoted one of Levinson's associates, Dawud Salahuddin - himself a U.S. citizen wanted by U.S. authorities for an alleged murder in 1980 - as saying he and Levinson had shared a hotel room in Kish on March 8.

Iranian officials in plain clothes came to the room and detained and questioned Salahuddin about his Iranian passport, Salahuddin said. On his release a day later, Levinson had disappeared, and the Iranian officials told Salahuddin he had left Iran.

"I don't think he is missing, but don't want to point my finger at anyone. Some people know exactly where he is," Salahuddin told the newspaper. "He came only to see me."

Salahuddin confirmed the details of the Financial Times story but did not comment further.

When asked whether he was concerned for Levinson, he said: "No, but it is something that hangs over my head because I feel responsible for him." He said this was because Levinson had come to speak to him.

U.S. officials in Washington said they had not been able to independently verify Salahuddin's version of events.

"We believe that there were contacts between this guy (Salahuddin) and Levinson. The comments by Dawud generally track with what we think he has said before but we cannot independently confirm or verify much of it," said the U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Washington has made an official diplomatic inquiry to Iran about Levinson, who U.S. officials say went there on private business. Tehran says it is trying to find out what happened to him and has asked the United States for more information.

State Department spokesman Tom Casey said Washington still did not have any "credible" information about Levinson's whereabouts.

"We continue to be very concerned about his well-being and want to do everything we can to try to locate him," Casey told reporters in Washington.

Salahuddin said he was worried about Levinson's health but was confident "he is well taken care of" by Iranian authorities, the newspaper quoted him as saying.

He said the purpose of his meeting with Levinson was to put him in touch with Iranian authorities to help his investigations into cigarette smuggling, as part of the former FBI agent's work for a tobacco company, the FT reported.

Salahuddin, also known as David Belfield and Hassan Abdulrahman, is a U.S. citizen who converted to Islam. He is wanted by Washington for the 1980 murder of a former Iranian diplomat and opponent of the Islamic revolution which overthrew the shah in 1979.