NEW YORK, NY May 27, 2007 —Iran's Foreign Ministry says it has no information about a New York-based consultant who has reportedly been detained.

The Manhattan-based Open Society Institute says Kian Tajbakhsh was detained on or around May Eleventh. The Iranian-American urban planning consultant works for the institute. He's also a senior research fellow at the New School.

Iran's Foreign Ministry says it has "no exact report about him from official authorities." Tajbakhsh is one of a number of Iranian-Americans reported to have been detained by Tehran in recent months. The US and Iran are preparing to hold ambassador-level talks aimed at calming Iraq's violence. Those meetings are scheduled for Monday in Baghdad.