DUBAI - Saudi and UAE forces will only leave Bahrain when an Iranian threat to Gulf Arab countries is judged to be over, Bahrain's foreign minister said on Monday, hinting that Gulf troops could be there for some time.

Gulf Arab troops headed to the island state, seen as a bulwark by Washington and its Sunni Arab allies against the ambitions of Shi'ite power Iran, in March under the aegis of a Gulf defence pact to help put down a protest movement led by majority Shi'ites.

Iran complained to the United Nations about the deployment of Gulf Cooperation Council forces in Bahrain and said it cannot remain indifferent to the crackdown on protests, which has continued in recent weeks with the arrests of hundreds of activists and some deaths in custody.

"There are no Saudi forces, there are GCC forces and they will leave when they are done with any external threat," Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa told Reuters on the sidelines of a conference in the United Arab Emirates.

Asked to elaborate, he said: "The external threat is a regional one. The external threat is a complete misunderstanding between the GCC and Iran. This is a threat."

"I am not pointing fingers here, but what we are seeing from Iran, on Bahrain, on Saudi Arabia, on Kuwait, the occupation of the islands of the Emirates, doesn't make the situation a positive one. It keeps it a constant threat, and ongoing one."

LEGAL ACTION

Bahrain has put two Iranians and a Bahraini on trial on charges of spying for Iran, while Kuwait this month expelled three Iranian diplomats accused of involvement in a spy ring. Tehran then asked three Kuwaiti diplomats to leave.

Iran and the UAE have a dispute stretching back many years over three islands occupied by Iran but claimed by the UAE.

Saudi Arabia has threatened unspecified measures if Iran fails to protect its diplomats after students demonstrated outside the Saudi embassy in Tehran last week.

Bahrain's foreign minister repeated comments he made last week that Bahrain, which hosts the US Fifth Fleet, does not intend to close down the biggest opposition party, Wefaq.

The United States had issued a rebuke over a statement on the official news agency that Wefaq would be dissolved.

Bahrain's Justice Ministry said it raised legal action over the status of Wefaq which it accused of trying to bring down the constitutional order and taking instructions from religious leaders. It said a verdict was expected within a month.

"The position is not to dissolve Wefaq. Wefaq committed some violations. There is a court case, but there is no witchhunt here," Sheikh Khaled said. "Wefaq will stay and we want to see Wefaq as partner for the future."

Opposition groups including Wefaq, a mainstream Shi'ite group which won 18 seats last year in elections for a 40-seat parliament that has few powers, were considering entering talks with the government before the crackdown in March.

The foreign minister said the government had no conditions for talks with Wefaq. "We don't have any conditions. We've never had any conditions. We have been waiting for them to come for a long time without conditions".