BAM, Jan 1: Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Thursday the United States had been sending positive signals to his country for several months, following the temporary lifting of US sanctions on Iran in the wake of the Bam earthquake.

He was speaking after Washington announced that Americans will be allowed to send cash and relief aid following Friday's massive quake, which killed tens of thousands. "We must look at it more closely, but they are in the process of sending positive signals for several months now," Rafsanjani, chairman of the powerful Expediency Council arbitration body, said at Bam airport.

He singled out Wednesday's announcement by the United States that it was suspending for 90 days some of its restrictions on contacts with Iran for humanitarian reasons.

Asked about the possibility of a resumption of talks between Washington and Tehran, which call each other part of the "Axis of Evil" and "the Great Satan" respectively, Rafsanjani said, "I am not sure but there are signals" from the United States.

Rafsanjani is from the province of Kerman, in which Bam is located, and was making his first visit to the area since the quake, which destroyed up to 70 percent of the city and left tens of thousands more homeless.

His remarks come two days after Iranian President Mohammad Khatami rejected any dialogue with Washington without a radical shift in US policy, despite welcoming American aid for victims of last week's devastating earthquake.

"What is the point of negotiations if there is no trust that will enable us to reach a common position," Khatami said on a visit to Kerman. Khatami hailed the United States, as well as Europe, Asia and Muslim nations for their aid following the disaster, but said "I don't think that (the US aid) will change anything (regarding relations between Iran and the United States) without a profound change (in the US attitude)."

Secretary of State Colin Powell, who hinted this week that new dialogue between Washington and Tehran could emerge from the ruins of the earthquake, actively campaigned for the suspension of the sanctions, which have been in place since the 1980s, US officials said.

"There are things happening, and therefore we should keep open the possibility of dialogue at an appropriate point in the future," Powell said in an interview with the Washington Post published Tuesday.-AFP