Tehran  - A senior Iranian clergy member on Friday deplored recent remarks by US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on preparing renewed tough sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programmes.

"What kind of talk is that and where is the difference to the policy adopted against Iran during the (former US president George W) Bush era?" ex-president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani said at the Friday prayer ceremony.

Washington - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called for the immediate release of an American journalist sentenced to eight years in prison in Iran on "baseless" espionage charges.

"We believe she should be freed immediately," Clinton said. "The charges against her are baseless."

Roxana Saberi had been held in Iran for months prior to last week's sentence. The Iranian government charges she was operating in the country illegally because she was not a credentialed journalist.

Washington  - The United States will seek an immediate international meeting to broaden efforts against piracy off the coast of Somalia, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday.

Clinton said that previous steps to counter piracy have not been enough, pointing to the recent surge of assaults on commercial shipping and hostage taking in the Indian Ocean, including last week's seizure of an American-flagged vessel.

Tehran - Tehran on Wednesday categorically denied a meeting between officials of Iran and the United States occurred at a UN conference in the Netherlands, the Mehr news agency reported.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had said the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, met briefly Tuesday with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Akhunzadeh at the conference on Afghanistan in The Hague.

Mexico City  - On her first visit to Mexico, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton Wednesday emphasized that Washington was prepared to help shoulder the responsibility alongside Mexico for fighting the increasingly violent drug cartels south of the US border.

Before her meeting with President Felipe Calderon, Clinton remarked to reporters that the "insatiable demand" for illegal drugs in the US feeds the drug violence and trade. Mexico's Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa joined the talks.

Washington/Mexico City - As US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived Wednesday in Mexico for her first visit to the southern US neighbour, the US Congress raised alarm about growing drug violence south of the border.

Heightened concern about the inflow of illicit drugs into the United States and the backflow of money and arms into Mexico are sure to dominate Clinton's meeting with her Mexican counterpart Patricia Espinosa.