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Azerbaijan`s government has dismissed a report saying that Baku granted Israel access to Azerbaijani bases that could be used in potential air strikes by Israel against nuclear targets in Azerbaijan`s neighbor Iran.

The article in Foreign Policy magazine, ``Israel`s Secret Staging Ground``, which was published last Wednesday and carried by several Israeli media outlets, quoted unnamed senior US officials as saying Azerbaijan was providing Israeli fighter planes with access to airfields near Iran`s northern border.

``These reports are absolutely baseless and nonsensical,`` Azerbaijani Defense Ministry`s deputy spokesman, Teymur Abdullayev, told the Baku-based Trend news agency.

Ali Hasanov, the Azerbaijani Presidential Administration`s head of social and political issues, also rejected the report, saying hostile forces were trying to foment trouble between Iran and Azerbaijan.

``Either some opposition circles, the media outlets they run, or international organizations and their media, taking advantage of the current situation regarding Iran, are seeking to set Azerbaijan and Iran against each other, undermine relations between the two countries and turn them into enemies,`` Hasanov said.

``There are countries and circles interested in this. We are stating to them… that their intentions will not materialize as no one will succeed in spoiling Azerbaijan`s relations with Iran and other neighboring states, with the exception of Armenia.``

Hasanov reiterated Azerbaijan`s stance, saying the country`s territory has not been and will not be used for actions defying Iran, Turkey, Russia and Georgia.

The Azerbaijani embassy in the U.S. on Tuesday sent a letter to the Foreign Policy magazine expressing its strong protest at ``another provocative report`` regarding Azerbaijan circulated by US media.

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland has said the United States does not possess information that backs claims of Israeli access to Azerbaijani bases.

``I don`t have any information to indicate that the reports that are out there have any basis in fact,`` Nuland said at a daily press briefing in Washington.

The article`s author, Mark Perry, wrote that the US secret service bodies are concerned that Israel`s alleged military expansion in Azerbaijan could complicate the US efforts to defuse tension between archenemies Israel and Iran. Pentagon strategists are therefore having to take into account the threat of a military scenario being applied not only in the Middle East but also in the Caucasus region, the article says.

Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Elmar Mammadyarov said Tuesday that Baku would not back any initiatives aiming to resolve the ``Iran problem`` with the use of force.

``If such an initiative is put forward, Azerbaijan would not support it, because we maintain good neighborliness and friendship relations with Iran,`` Mammadyarov was quoted by Interfax Azerbaijan news agency as saying at a news briefing in Baku.

The minister reminded that this stance is in line with the statement adopted at the trilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Iran and Turkey in Azerbaijan`s Nakhchivan autonomous republic in March.

Iranian-Azerbaijani relations have been strained since reports in February said Azerbaijan had purchased some $1.6 billion of weapons from Israel.

Israel, which views a potential Iranian nuclear bomb as a threat to its existence, says military strikes on Iran remain an option. According to US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Tel-Aviv may strike Iranian nuclear targets in April, May or June.

Brenda Shaffer, Israel`s foremost expert on Azerbaijan, suggests it is highly unlikely that Israel`s sale of drones and anti-aircraft missile defense systems to Azerbaijan points to a bilateral defense pact against Iran.

If Azerbaijan is bolstering its defense systems, this is more likely to be a display of strength intended for Armenia, which currently occupies 20 percent of its territory, the expert told The Guardian.

``Azerbaijan is bordered by Russia, Iran and Turkey. Its economy is dependent on the safe export of oil, which requires regional stability,`` Shaffer said.

More than 30 percent of the Iranian population are ethnic Azeris, the expert said and added that Azerbaijan tries to maintain friendly relations with Iran as it does with Israel.

``It would be very wary of allowing itself to take a step that might be seen as aggressive,`` Shaffer suggests.

If there is a conflict with Iran, Azerbaijan will be the first to suffer, she added.