Tehran:
Iran's foreign ministry on Wednesday denied reports that US and Iranian officials held a meeting on the sidelines of an international conference on Afghanistan, the Mehr news agency said.
Foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi also denied that the Iranian delegation had received any letter from the US officials asking about the whereabouts of three American nationals reportedly jailed or gone missing in the Islamic republic.
"No meeting or talks... be it formal or informal, official or unofficial between Iran and US officials took place on the sidelines of this conference," Ghashghavi told Mehr.
"We categorically deny the reports published in this regard. As no meeting or talks took place, naturally no letter was handed to Iran from the American side."
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said senior US and Iranian officials met on the sidelines of the conference on rebuilding Afghanistan held in The Hague on Tuesday.
"In the course of the conference today, our special representative for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, had a brief and cordial exchange with the head of the Iranian delegation," she told a press conference.
Clinton said the meeting had been unplanned, but Holbrooke and Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Mehdi Akhoondzadeh agreed to "stay in touch".