Iran on Sunday lashed out at the US leader for demanding Tehran release four Iranian-Americans detained for alleged espionage and urged the United States to stop interference in its internal affairs.

"Such a comment is an obvious example of intervention in our internal affairs," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad-Ali Hosseini told his weekly press briefing.

"The United States should stop these actions," he added. "They (the detainees) are Iranian nationals and the Iranian authorities are reviewing their case."

US President George W. Bush in a statement on Friday called for the "immediate and unconditional" release of the four Iranian-Americans.

The four detainees are Haleh Esfandiari, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Center for Scholars, Kian Tajbakhsh with George Soros' Open Society Institute, Parnaz Azima, journalist from the US-funded Radio Farda, and AliShakeri, a peace activist with the Center for Citizen Peace building at the University of California, Irvine.

"I strongly condemn their detention at the hands of Iranian authorities. They should be freed immediately and unconditionally," Bush said in the statement.

They were "being held against their will by the Iranian regime," Bush said, adding that "Their presence in Iran -- to visit their parents or to conduct humanitarian work -- poses no threat."

Bush also demanded Iran provide information on Robert Levinson, a former FBI agent who reportedly went missing during a private visit to Iran in March.

(Xinhua News Agency June 4, 2007)