Iran agrees to release female US hiker

TEHRAN - Iran said Sunday that it would be ready to grant bail to Sarah Shourd, one of the three Americans jailed for more than a year.

The news agency ILNA quoted Tehran public prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying that Shourd could leave the country after paying a bail amounting to $500,000.

But the prosecutor said the other two hikers, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, must remain in jail.

Observers speculated that Shroud was to be released because a lump was diagnosed in her breast and she needed specialised medical care.

Iranian authorities arrested Shourd, Bauer and Fattal in July 2009 when they allegedly crossed an unmarked border into Iran while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.