WASHINGTON, April 3: A US citizen who has been missing in Iran since March 8 is a former FBI agent, agency officials said. FBI spokesman Rich Kolko told reporters the agent had retired nearly a decade ago and was not working for the FBI as a contractor.

US intelligence agencies often hire retired agents as contractors for special assignments.

But the FBI spokesman said the missing man was not on any government assignment and had travelled to Iran from the United Arab Emirates on personal business.

Mr Kolko said the retired agent was last seen in Iran in early March and his family and friends have not heard from him since then.

“At this time, there are no indications that this matter should be viewed other than as a missing person case,” Mr Kolko said.

The man went missing on Kish Island, part of a free trade zone under Iranian control that non-Iranian nationals usually do not need visas to visit.

Spokesman Kolko also said the former agent had worked on traditional criminal issues such as organised crime cases and was not associated with the teams that work on international terrorism or intelligence and are required to travel abroad on assignments.