Oil giant BP has not renewed a contract to supply Iranian airlines with fuel, the Financial Times Deutschland reported in its Tuesday edition.

The report, in the German-language edition of the financial daily, could explain a statement by an Iranian official Monday that Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates had started to refuse to refuel its passenger planes.

The contract had expired at the end of June, the FT Deutschland reported, and its ending was already having an effect.

It cited an incident in which an Iran Air plane had to land in Vienna because it had been refused a refuelling at Hamburg airport in northern Germany.

"We won't comment on individual contracts with every airline," BP told the daily.

"But we respect, in all the countries where we operate, the local rules regarding sanctions."

Fresh sanctions against Iran voted by the United Nations had influenced their decision, said the company.

French group Total at the German airport of Cologne-Bonn, and Kuwaiti group Q8 both told the paper that they were supplying fuel as normal.

While an Iranian official said Monday that airports in Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates had started to refuse to refuel passenger planes from Iran, the reports were denied in all three countries.

On June 9, the UN Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions against Iran over its nuclear programme, followed by unilateral punitive measures by the European Union and later by the United States.

The US measures include moves to choke off Iran's access to imports of refined petroleum products such as gasoline and jet fuel.

World powers led by Washington suspect Tehran is making nuclear weapons under the guise of a civilian atomic programme. Iran says its nuclear programme is purely for peaceful purposes.

related report
Iran Air in Germany denies fuel supply refusal
Berlin (AFP) July 5, 2010 - The German office of Iran Air, the national carrier, dismissed Iranian reports Monday that Germany had refused to refuel Iranian passenger planes since Washington imposed unilateral sanctions.

"It is not correct," Mohammad Reza Rajabi, the head of the airline's operations in Germany, told AFP when asked about the reports by Iran's ISNA news agency.

ISNA said earlier that airports in Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates had denied fuel to Iranian passenger planes since last Thursday, after Washington imposed the sanctions on Tehran.

IRNA, the official state news agency, said in a separate report that Kuwaiti airports have also turned down fuel for Iranian planes.

But Rajabi said flight -- and fuelling -- service had continued without interruption in Germany.

"We have not had any problems," he said. "Yesterday we had flights and today and tomorrow again we will fly."

The German transport ministry said in a statement that neither US nor United Nations sanctions covered the refuelling of Iranian passenger planes, without a specific reaction to the Iranian reports.

related report
Iranian planes can still refuel in Dubai: airport spokesman
Dubai (AFP) July 5, 2010 - Iranian passenger planes are still able to refuel at Dubai airport, a spokesman for the airport told AFP on Monday, denying reports from Tehran.

"Iranian planes travelling to and from Dubai through Dubai International Airport still enjoy the refueling service," the spokesman told AFP, asking not to be named.

Iran's ISNA news agency reported earlier on Monday that airports in Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates had refused to refuel Iranian passenger planes since Washington imposed unilateral sanctions on Tehran last week.

The General Civil Aviation Authority which oversees the sector in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which Dubai is a member, said it did not have information of any such ban.

However, a source close to the aviation sector in the UAE told AFP there was a problem with an international fuel supplier which had refused to serve Iranian aircraft.

"A servicing company which provides fueling at several airports around the world has refused to provide Iranian planes with fuel, including at UAE terminals," he said.

"The Iranian air operators have alternative sources for refueling at UAE airports," he added, requesting anonymity.