TEHRAN, November 9 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iran will only allow into its territory Iraqi refugees whose lives are in danger in case of a U.S.-led strike on its neighbor, a senior interior ministry official said Saturday.

Iranian authorities previously said their borders will be closed to any refugees fleeing a conflict in Iraq, as was the case on the Afghan border during U.S. operations in late 2001.

"It is only if their lives are threatened that we will allow into the country Iraqi nationals, though without giving them permission to enter towns," Ahmad Hosseini, deputy interior minister for refugee affairs, told the state news agency IRNA.

In mid-October, Hosseini said he could set up 16 camps to welcome up to 700,000 refugees in the event of war, but on the other side of the border.

He revised that figure to 500,000 on Saturday, saying 150,000 would be taken care of by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Iran is also home to some two million Afghan refugees, despite the departure of more than 320,000 since the beginning of a voluntary return program in April.

Hosseini’s announcement came as the UN Security Council on Friday approved a revised U.S. resolution against Iraq which calls on Baghdad to disarm or face a military attack.

On Sunday, November 3, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said that the voluntary repatriation of Iraqi refugees from Iran has resumed after a five month halt.

UNHCR said a group of 78 Iraqis stranded here since the end of the 1980-1988 war crossed from Shalamcheh in Iran's southwest to Basra in Iraq late last month, bringing to 365 the number heading home this year.

The agency said new procedures imposed by the Iraqi authorities had blocked the return program. According to official figures, more than 202,000 Iraqis were living as refugees in Iran in 2001. From Iraq, some 1,173 Iranians have returned home since July.

Meanwhile, Iranian News Agency IRNA said Saturday that Iran said Saturday it 'is carefully studying' UN Security Council resolution on Iraq as it hoped 'Iraq will fully cooperate' with UN weapons inspectors in order to remove 'any ground for American pretext and adventurism in the region'.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi, however, stressed that 'the Security Council must be the pivot for any decision and action on Iraq'.

Iran, which fought an imposed war with Iraq between 1980 and 1988, is opposed to any U.S. attack on Baghdad, saying this will set a bad precedent for the change of governments in the world.

On Friday, an Iranian scholar, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, said that the “barbarism" committed by key U.S. ally Israel showed that Washington was "looking for war", and called on those who want to improve ties with the superpower to "repent".

"The barbarism committed by the United States in the region, notably in occupied Palestine, show that this country has always been looking for war," said Janati said during Friday prayers in Tehran.

Meanwhile, Janati blasted those recently arrested for conducting and publishing a poll showing that the majority of Iranians favored restoring dialogue with arch-enemy the United States.

Janati, a member of the conservative-dominated arbitration body, the Expediency Council, said the poll was "faked" and added that those who organized it had received 45 million dollars from the United States.

The Muslim holy month of Ramadan "is a very good opportunity to repent, so repent to God and the people, who will certainly forgive you," he said.

The poll drew the wrath of conservatives and sparked judicial proceedings against Behrouz Gheranpayeh, the head of a polling institute linked to that poll, and Abdollah Nasseri, the head of IRNA.

Gheranpayeh was accused of spying and collaborating with an armed opposition group and his institute has been shut down.

Others, including outspoken reformist figure Abbas Abdi, have also been arrested and are being investigated for links to the controversial poll.