TEHRAN, Jan 9: The United States must stop making accusations against Iran if it wants to open a new page in relations with Tehran, former Iranian president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday.

"If the United States wants to extend the hand of friendship and turn over a new leaf, they should stop repeating past accusations (against Iran) which are totally false," Rafsanjani said at weekly Friday prayers in the capital.

Rafsanjani, who heads Iran's top political arbitration body, said Tehran thanked the US for relief aid it sent after the Bam earthquake in December 2003. "But after that they proved their immaturity by suggesting the dispatch to Iran of a mission headed by two important figures," Rafsanjani said. He was referring to Washington's offer of sending a follow-up delegation of officials close to US President George W. Bush. Tehran turned the offer down.

"This had nothing to do with the relief aid. It was a new action," which Iran saw as a sign of Washington's wish to take advantage of the situation "to solve problems," between the two countries, the former president said. "But undoubtedly fearing the Zionist lobby, (Mr) Bush made the mistake of repeating past accusations against Iran by insisting that Iran was trying to make weapons of mass destruction, backed terrorism and did not respect human rights," he said.

Mr Rafsanjani said such accusations tarnished US efforts to improve ties with Iran. "Maybe the Americans were trying again to present themselves as logical beings and say that we are stubborn," he said.

"The US has harmed us before and after the (1979) Islamic Revolution. We must sit down and solve these issues but if the Americans continue to utter the same accusations the dialogue will serve no purpose, he said.-AFP