The United States said on Friday that it is closely monitoring Iran, Syria's borders with Iraq and urged the two countries to control their borders to prevent insurgents from crossing into Iraq to fight against the US-led coalition troops there.

"In terms of border issue with Iraq, obviously, we and the Iraqis monitor closely the activities of Iranian representatives in Iraq," US national security adviser Steven Hadley said at a briefing at US President George W. Bush's hometown of Crawford, Texas.

"We try to ensure that from both of the borders -- the border that Iraq has with Syria and the border it has with Iran -- that there are not flows of fighters or armaments or anything else that will make the situation in Iraq more difficult," Hadley said.

"We are all in agreement that Iran and Syria need to control their borders and make sure that there is nothing going across those borders that will compound the security situation in Iraq and lead to not only coalition forces and Americans being at risk and killed," he added.

The United States has been pressing both Iran and Syria to guard against their borders with Iraq. Teheran and Damascus has rebutted the criticism.

Source: Xinhua