Iran said on Tuesday that a widely trailed announcement by US President Barack Obama of more troops for Afghanistan showed there was no real change in policy from his predecessor George W. Bush.

- We regard the US government's policy of surging forces as following Mr Bush's policies - said foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast.

- It is by seeing these signs that we say there is no change in US policy - he added.

- The solution to security in the region is the pullout of foreign forces and the cooperation of regional countries to provide security - he said, speaking ahead of Obama's address.

Iran has had no diplomatic ties with the United States since the aftermath of the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Under Bush's administration, relations remained frosty as it listed Iran in an "axis of evil" with Stalinist North Korea and Saddam Hussein's Iraq, and sent troops first into its eastern neighbour Afghanistan and then its western neighbour Iraq.

Obama's administration started off by joining talks with Iran on its nuclear programme but the dialogue ran into serious difficulty last month when Tehran rejected UN-brokered proposals for the supply of nuclear fuel.