DUBAI (REUTERS) - Iran on Saturday dismissed a US decision to deny a visa to its proposed new envoy to the United Nations, saying it would take up the case directly with the United Nations.

"We do not have a replacement for Mr Abutalebi and we will pursue the matter via legal mechanisms anticipated in the United Nations," Mr Abbas Araghchi, a senior Foreign Ministry official and top nuclear negotiator, was quoted by Iran's official IRNA news agency as saying.

The United States said on Friday it would not grant a visa to Mr Hamid Abutalebi, citing the envoy's links to the 1979-1981 hostage crisis.

The veteran diplomat has acknowledged that he acted as an interpreter for the militants who held the hostages.