Iran repeatedly warned Australia about the criminal past of the perpetrator of the Sydney cafe siege and called for him to be kept under surveillance, top officials in Teheran said.

Man Haron Monis, the Iranian-born self-styled cleric who died along with two of the people he had taken hostage, was being investigated over fraud charges when he fled in 1996, police said.

But Ebrahim Rahimpour, Iran's deputy foreign minister for Asia and Oceania affairs, said Australia ignored the guidance sent.

"Despite several notifications to the Australian government regarding his criminal background, no attention was paid," Rahimpour told state television.

"We provided information and asked them to watch this person but unfortunately they did not pay attention.

"The Australian government acted very poorly as far as security and protective standards were concerned."

Iran's police chief, Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, said Monis was known as Manteghi and managing a travel agency when he fled, leaving behind a wife and two children.

He traveled first to Malaysia and then on to Australia, where he landed as a refugee but later obtained citizenship. An extradition request from Teheran in 2000 was unsuccessful, Moghaddam said on the Iranian police website.

AFP

(China Daily 12/18/2014 page11)