New York: Ahmed Chalabi, a long-time Pentagon favourite to become leader of Iraq after Saddam Hussein's ouster, and some of his top aides supplied Iran with sensitive information on American occupation of Iraq which could "get people killed", a media report said today (May 3, 2004) quoting top Bush administration officials.

The electronic intercepts of discussions between Iranian leaders indicate that Chalabi and his entourage told Iranian contacts about American political plans in Iraq, 'Newsweek' quoted American officials as saying.

There are also indications that Chalabi has provided details of US security operations, the news magazine quotes one US Government source to say some of the information Chalabi turned over to Iran could "get people killed".

A Chalabi aide calls the allegations "absolutely false".

Chalabi, 'Newsweek' said, has never made a secret of his close ties to Iran. Before the US invasion of Baghdad, Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress (INC) maintained a 36,000-dollar-a-month branch office in Tehran funded by US taxpayers.

INC representatives, including Chalabi himself, paid regular visits to the Iranian capital.

Since the war, Chalabi's contacts with Iran may have intensified, the magazine said and quoted a Chalabi aide as saying that since last December, he has met with most of Iran's top leaders, including supreme religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his top national-security aide, Hassan Rowhani.