WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 (Xinhuanet) -- The US Defense Department on Tuesday denied reports that the American military was conducting spy flights over Iran.

    "I'm telling you that we're not doing those kinds of activities(reconnaissance flights over Iran)," Pentagon spokesman Larry Di Rita told a news briefing.

    Di Rita emphasized he spoke only for the Defense Department, and cautioned reporters not to interpret that to mean other agencies might be flying over Iran.

    "It's not going on out of this department...But it's not for meto speak for other departments. It is our belief that it's not happening elsewhere (in the US government), either," he said.

    The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the US government has been flying surveillance drones over Iran for nearly a year to seek evidence of nuclear weapons programs and detect weaknesses in air defenses.

    The small, pilotless planes penetrated Iranian airspace from USmilitary facilities in Iraq, trying to pick up traces of nuclear activity to gather information that was not accessible by satellites, the report quoted officials with detailed knowledge ofthe secret effort as saying.

    At the same news conference, Army Brigadier General David Rodriguez, the Joint Staff's deputy operations director, said thatUS troops held over in Iraq for election security have begun to return home, and the current US force level in Iraq of 155,000 would drop to the pre-election level of about 138,000 "in the nextfew weeks."

    Meanwhile, the number of attacks on American forces in Iraq has been down since the Jan. 30 elections, he said. Enditem