Iran's basketball team have departed for a tournament in the United States, an official said yesterday, for a rare sporting encounter between the arch-foes.

Mohammad Mashoun, head of Iran's basketball federation, said the Asian champions had been invited to a tournament in the state of Utah by the US National Basketball Association (NBA), ahead of next month's Olympic Games in Beijing.

"After many requests made to Iran by the US basketball federation and after a review of the request by Iranian officials we accepted this invitation," Mashoun told Reuters, without giving details on which US teams they would play.

Mashoun, declining to comment on any link between the event and politics, said Iran flew to Dubai on Sunday and planned to continue to the United States later yesterday where they would stay until July 22.

"I'm not a politician. Please don't ask me these kind of questions," he said when asked about any political significance of an Iranian team competing in a country that Iran's clerical leaders see as "the Great Satan".

Even though the countries have been bitter foes sincev Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution, which was followed by the United States cutting diplomatic ties in 1980, they have at times put aside their differences in the arena of sports.

About 20 American athletes and their coaches went to Iran for a wrestling competition in January 2007.

In April, the US State Department said Iranian wrestlers had been invited to train in the United States for the Olympics as part of efforts to increase ties with the Iranian people.

Basketball is one of Iran's most popular sports and several former NBA players have in recent years played for teams in the Iranian league.