TEHRAN, Feb. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Iran's Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that an earlier report of a missile fired from an aircraft near the southern port city of Dailam was wrong.

    A military spokesman said the army denied such a report and also a later report of the drop of a fuel tank from an aircraft.

    The state television said a fuel tank falling from an Iranian plane could have caused an explosion in Iran's Bushehr province.

    "A local source said the explosion could have been the result of the falling of an empty fuel tank from an Iranian plane," it said, referring to a report that an unknown aircraft fired a missile in a deserted area near Dailam in Bushehr province.

    The Russian embassy in Tehran also said it had heard of no attack on the nuclear power plant at Bushehr.

    "We contacted the head of the agency in charge and we are informed there was no attack on the nuclear power station," an embassy spokesman said.

    In Washington, US officials said they had no information about the reported blast but were checking on it.

    "We've seen the reports and we're looking into it," said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

    A Defense Department spokesman also said, "It is US policy to deal with Iran in a diplomatic manner."

    Iran's Russian-built 1,000-megawatt nuclear reactor, its only nuclear power plant, is due to start operating in Bushehr province in late 2005.    Iranian Minister of Information Ali Yunesi on Wednesday confirmed that US spy drones had been frequently flying over Iran's nuclear and military facilities for nearly one year.

    The United States, accusing Iran of secretly developing nuclear weapons, has threatened to launch preemptive attacks on Iran's nuclear facilities.

    Iran had refuted the US charge, vowing to defend itself with deterrent power. Enditem