¡¡¡¡Related: U.S. presses Moscow for explanation over spy allegation

     MOSCOW, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday rejected the U.S. charge of providing intelligence to Iraq at the start of the 2003 U.S.-led war against Saddam Hussein, and said the Pentagon report was politically motivated.

    The release of the Pentagon report suggested that it "has hidden political motives", Lavrov told media.

    He said this move might be connected with the situation in Iraq.

    Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service had also voiced its disapproval of the Pentagon's charge earlier in the weekend.

    The Pentagon report claimed that Russia had delivered military intelligence obtained from sources in Qatar, where the U.S. "Central Command" was situated, to Saddam Hussein.

    Just one day before the Russian foreign minister made his comments, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. government would talk with Russian authorities about the report.

    "Definitely we will raise it with the Russian government," she said, adding that she hoped they would take it seriously.

    According to U.S. State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack, Rice might raise the issue with her Russian counterpart at a meeting of foreign ministers in Berlin on Thursday. Enditem