The United States has expelled two attaches -- Nazih Abdul Latif Rahman and Yehia Naeem Suaoud -- at Iraq's United Nations mission.

The US state department, in a statement on Wednesday, said: "Nazih Abdul Latif Rahman and Yehia Naeem Suaoud have been asked to depart by midnight March 7.

"The two attaches were engaged in activities outside the scope of their official function. Federal law enforcement authorities deemed the activities to be harmful to our national security."

"They are the security personnel of the mission, the guards. They are living in the basement of the mission," the Iraqi Ambassador to the UN, Mohammed Al-Douri, was quoted as saying.

According to him, the two men had the ranks of attaches but were not on the list of personnel accredited to the UN. "They have nothing to do with the UN."