The 399 objects, including a valuable Koran, swords and chinaware were seized in 1999 in Iran's western Azarbayjan province, near the Iraqi border, they said on the website of the country's cultural heritage organization.

Transferred to Tehran in 2002, the objects were formally handed over to a Kuwaiti delegation Monday in Tehran in accordance with the 1970 UNESCO Convention on Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

"Iran and Kuwait have both been plundered by the regime of former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein," said the head of the heritage organization, Hussein Marashi, adding that he hoped the gesture would promote cultural relations between the two countries.

The two sides also touched on the issue of returning Iranian objects that allegedly came from the reknowned archaeological site at Jiroft in southeastern Iran.

The missing objects, thought to be 5,000 years old, were confiscated by British customs officers at London's Heathrow airport in July after being found in the possession of a Kuwaiti passenger. Tehran has asked London to return the pieces.

WAR.WIRE