US Senator Arlen Specter has requested Iran's permanent representative at the United Nations to assist the release of three American hikers arrested in the country for "illegal entry."

Senator Specter, a Democrat-turned-Republican-turned-Democrat from Pennsylvania, has written a letter to Ambassador Mohammad Khazaee seeking the "active assistance" of the Iranian official, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday.

Senator Specter also mentioned in the letter that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had promised to urge "maximum leniency" for the hikers before Iran's judiciary.

The three, Joshua Fattal, 27, Shane Bauer, 27, and Sarah Shourd, 31, were arrested in late July in the western Iranian city of Marivan for entering the country without prior authorization.

Kordestan province's deputy governor for political-security affairs, Iraj Hassanzadeh, had announced that the three detainees were traveling on Syrian and Iraqi visas.

Colonel Anwar Haj Omar of the Halabja police force in northern Iraq had linked the three Americans to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), according to Voices of Iraq.

MT/SC/MD