Iran-US tensions flare over sanctions threat, rocket claim

Iran accused the United States of lying Thursday about alleged test-firing of rockets near an American warship and anger rose in Tehran at the spectre of new sanctions from Washington.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards denied that its naval forces had been involved in a December 26 incident in which the US said rockets came close to the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The naval unit is responsible for securing Iranian interests in the Strait, a vital waterway for a large proportion of the world's oil, regularly patrolling the area and conducting exercises.

"The Guards' naval force had no exercise in the past week when the Americans claim that a missile or rocket was fired in the Hormuz Strait area," spokesman General Ramezan Sharif said.

The purported incident comes five months after Iran and world powers led by the US agreed a landmark deal -- yet to be finally implemented -- to limit the Islamic republic's nuclear programme in exchange for lifting economic sanctions.

A US military official said an Iranian vessel had test-fired several rockets near three Western warships including the aircraft carrier. A French frigate and the USS Bulkeley destroyer were also in the area.