Iranians applying for diplomatic visas to Iraq were vetted by the US embassy in Baghdad for as long as 16 months before their application was decided upon, a leaked US document showed Monday.

The diplomatic cable, part of a tranche of a quarter of a million secret US files published by Internet whistleblower website Wikileaks, said that American vetting showed a fifth of applicants had possible ties to Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) or its ministry of intelligence.

"Since 2008, the MFA (ministry of foreign affairs) has passed names of Iranians applying for diplomatic visas to the US Embassy for vetting," the cable, dated April 2009 and sent from the US embassy in Baghdad, said.

"Background checks have revealed that about 20 percent have possible ties to the IRGC or Iran's ministry of intelligence and security … The MFA has informed us that it denies visas to all new suspected intelligence officers, but we have not been able to verify such claims."

It continues: "In January 2009, the MFA passed a list of 35 names to the USG (US government) of Iranian diplomats already in country before the vetting process began. Of those, eight had ties to IRGC or MOIS."

The cable does not give any further details of the vetting process, when specifically in 2008 it began, or whether it was an ongoing programme.

Iraqi Deputy Foreign Minister Labid Abawi told AFP, however, that the information in the cable was "not accurate", and denied that any such vetting process ever took place.

A US embassy spokesman, meanwhile, declined to comment on the cable.

"The Department of State does not comment on materials, including classified documents, which may have been leaked," Aaron Snipe, a spokesman for the US embassy in Baghdad, said via e-mail when asked whether the vetting process was still being used.

"Any unauthorised disclosure of classified information by Wikileaks has harmful implications for the lives of identified individuals that are jeopardised, but also for global engagement among and between nations.

"Given its potential impact, we condemn such unauthorised disclosures and are taking every step to prevent future security breaches."

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