BEIRUT, Lebanon, Feb 05, 2004 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- Israel is holding four Iranians kidnapped during its 1982 invasion of Lebanon, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said Thursday.

Israel has long denied the allegation.

The Iranians, who included two diplomats, were abducted at a checkpoint manned by an Israeli-backed militia north of Beirut. The militia, the now-disbanded Lebanese Forces, says the four were killed, but their bodies have never been found.

Kharrazi spoke on his arrival in Lebanon for talks on the second phase of a prisoner exchange between Israel and the militant group Hezbollah. Under the plan, whose first phase saw the swap of more than 400 captives last week, Iran and Hezbollah are to look into the fate of missing Israeli airman Ron Arad and Israel is to consider releasing its longest-held Lebanese militant.

"Those (Iranians) were taken prisoner in an area controlled by a (Lebanese) group linked to Israel," Kharrazi told reporters at Beirut airport. "Much information confirms that those (Iranians) have been taken to Israel in order to secure the release of a number of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners held in Israel."

Kharrazi did not specify whether he believed the Iranians to be alive. The minister was accompanied by the son of one of the missing Iranians, charge d'affaires Mohsen Musavi, and relatives of the others.

"We are certain and there is much evidence that they (four Iranians) are alive and they are held in Israel," the son, Raed Musavi, told The Associated Press. "Many say that the Israeli side wants to exchange them for Israeli airman Ron Arad."

After separate talks with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud and Foreign Minister Jean Obeid, Kharrazi said Iran supported the Israel-Hezbollah negotations for prisoner swaps, but it was not playing a direct role.

However, he said Iran had asked Germany to help find the four Iranians. Germany has been mediating the Israel-Hezbollah negotations.

Asked whether Iran would look into the fate of Arad, Kharrazi said: "We have no role in determining the fate of this person. He is not in Iran. But we hope that the fate of this person is determined because he is important for determining the fate of others."

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has said his group will form a committee to seek information on Arad and the four Iranians.

The Iranian Embassy in Beirut says the four Iranians - Musavi, fellow diplomat Ahmad Motovasselian, photographer Kazem Akhavan and embassy driver Mohammad Taqi Rastgar Moghaddam - were abducted at a Lebanese Forces checkpoint on July 4, 1982 while they were traveling to Beirut from the northern city of Tripoli.

Lebanese Forces was a Christian militia backed by Israel during Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war. The Israeli army was occupying large tracts of Lebanon at the time of kidnapping.

Asked about Kharrazi's comment Thursday, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman David Saranga recalled Israel had repeatedly denied taking the Iranians and added: "nothing has changed in Israel's policy."

In last week's swap, Israel freed 400 Palestinian prisoners to the West Bank and Gaza, and 30 other Arabs, most of whom were flown to Lebanon. Israel also returned the remains of 59 guerrillas to Lebanon. Hezbollah released a kidnapped Israeli businessman and the bodies of three Israeli soldiers that it ambushed in 2000.

In the second phase, Hezbollah has promised to find concrete information on Arad, whose plane was shot down over Lebanon in 1986. Israeli reports have often said Arad has been taken to Iran, but Iran has always denied this.

In return for satisfactory information on Arad, Israel would release Samir Kantar, a Lebanese militant who has been in an Israeli prison since 1979 for killing three Israelis.

By HUSSEIN DAKROUB Associated Press Writer