Argentina's Menem denies bomb cover-up

LA RIOJA, Argentina (CNN) -- Former Argentine President Carlos Menem denied a report in Monday's New York Times that said Iran paid him $10 million to cover up its suspected involvement in the bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center that killed 85 people eight years ago.

Menem said the charges were false and politically motivated.

"It is an old and deplorable lie, a defamation that is floated again when there are important events in Argentina in which I am actively participating," Menem said in an interview later in the day with CNN Espaņol, CNN's Spanish language network.

In a front-page story, the Times reported a high-level defector from Iran's intelligence agency, who gave his name as Abdolghassem Mesbahi, made the charges in secret testimony to the Argentine judge investigating the bombing.

The newspaper reported on a transcript of the secret deposition, as provided to the Times by Argentine officials who were described as "frustrated that the case remains unsolved."

Menem is running for his Justicialist party nomination in presidential elections scheduled for March 2003. He attributed the timing of the document leak to the Times to "political maneuvering."

"Despite everything they are trying to do against me, this electoral process already has a winner, and this isn't arrogance," Menem told CNN Espaņol, implying he would be returned to the Casa Rosada, Argentina's presidential palace, after a four-year absence.