US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates has repeated past accusations against Tehran when asked about an Iranian offer to train Afghan police.

"I think if the Iranians want to be helpful in Afghanistan the first thing they ought to do is stop sending weapons to the Taliban," Gates told reporters aboard an airplane over Rhode Island.

"It's a very small level but they're still doing it," Gates charged.

Iran helped the US in its campaign to curb Taliban influence in Afghanistan after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, only to be labeled by former US president George W. Bush as a member of the Bush-engineered grouping -- the Axis of Evil.

Iran was a leading opponent of the Taliban during the five reign of the group over neighboring Afghanistan.

In 1998, the Taliban came close to a war with Iran by killing nine Iranian diplomats in the central Afghan city of Mazari Sharif.

According to an October report by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Center for International Studies, Tehran played its part against extremism by providing the US logistics support for the overthrow of the Taliban.

Iran has since strived to bring calm to Afghanistan via construction projects. In a recent conference in The Hague, Tehran promised to take its efforts to the next level and later offered to train Afghan police.

The finger-pointing by the US defense secretary comes in spite of Afghan President Hamid Karzai having rejected allegations of Iranian interference and Washington having failed to come up with evidence to substantiate its claims.

The ongoing allegations have created suspicions inside Iran toward the sincerity of the Obama administration in offering "new beginnings" with the country, the history of which has been blemished due to decades of US meddling.

MJ/AAM/AA