An Iranian nuclear scientist who claims he was abducted by CIA agents last year and taken to the US is on his way back to Tehran, Iran says.

Foreign Ministry officials, who claim they have evidence Shahram Amiri was kidnapped, told state media he had now left the US.

The US state department has insisted he was in the US of his own free will.

In June, Mr Amiri appeared in three videos giving conflicting stories about how he had arrived in the US.

He said in the first that he had been kidnapped by CIA and Saudi agents while on a pilgrimage.

Analysis
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Jon Leyne

Tehran correspondent

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Iran continues to declare that he was kidnapped by the Americans and they are clearly going to take full propaganda advantage of his return with Mr Amiri promising to give full details once he is back in his home country

Who wins propaganda war?
In the second message he said he had gone to the US to improve his education and was living freely in Arizona.

In the third, he claimed to have escaped from US custody.

On Monday evening Mr Amiri arrived at the Iranian Interests Section of the Pakistani embassy in Washington, which handles Iranian affairs in the US capital, and asked to be repatriated.

Since then, he has renewed his allegations that he was kidnapped, giving more details to the Iranian media.

But in the US, unnamed officials and security sources are claiming that Mr Amiri defected and was put into a kind of witness-protection programme.

Later, he apparently became concerned for family members he had left behind, had a breakdown and decided to return to Iran, US reports claim.

'Free to go'

Iranian media quoted foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying Mr Amiri would travel back to Iran though a "third country".

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Mr Amiri has been in the United States of his own free will and he is free to go”
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Hillary Clinton

Secretary of State
Timeline: Nuclear scientist mystery
Profile: Shahram Amiri
"With the efforts of the Islamic Republic of Iran and effective co-operation of Pakistan's embassy in Washington, a few minutes ago Shahram Amiri left American soil and is heading back to Iran," Mr Mehmanparast said.

Another foreign ministry spokesman later told the Associated Press that the scientist would make a stopover in Qatar. There are no direct flights from the US to Iran.

In June, Iran claimed it had handed evidence to the US that the scientist had been abducted.

The US had repeatedly said it had no information about Mr Amiri.

However, on Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledged publicly for the first time that the scientist was in the US - but she flatly denied allegations of abduction.

"Mr Amiri has been in the United States of his own free will and he is free to go," she said.

Iranian media reports say Mr Amiri worked as a researcher at a university in Tehran, but some reports say he worked for the country's atomic energy organisation and had in-depth knowledge of its controversial nuclear programme.