UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday expelled two members of Iraq's U.N. mission for activities considered ``harmful'' to U.S. security and asked several other countries to take similar action, the State Department said.

The two were described as diplomats but Iraq's U.N. ambassador, Mohammed Aldouri, said they were security guards, although they had the title of ``attache.''

The men were identified as Nazih Abdullatif Rahman and Yehia Naeem Suaoud and were asked to leave by midnight on Friday for conducting activities outside of their official duties, a term that usually but not always indicates spying.

``They (U.S. officials) are always talking about their activities being in contradiction of their diplomatic duties, but they are inside the mission all of the time and how do they have the time to do this?'' Aldouri told Reuters.

``We cannot say they are diplomats. They are security guards at the mission, but they have a title of attache,'' Aldouri said.

A statement from the State Department in Washington said: ``The two attaches were engaged in activities outside the scope of their official functions. Federal law enforcement authorities deemed the activities to be harmful to our national security.''

It said that the United Nations was advised of the U.S. request on March 4.

State Department spokeswoman Tara Rigler said Washington had asked other countries to kick out alleged Iraqi spies.

``The United States has asked host governments in a number of countries to expel Iraqi intelligence agents from operating under diplomatic cover who we believe pose a threat to our personnel in installations overseas,'' she said, declining to name the countries.

This had no bearing on the timing of possible military action against Iraq, Rigler said.

Expulsions of Iraqis have picked up in the past month as the Bush administration gears up for a possible invasion to disarm Iraq of its suspected weapons of mass destruction.

In mid-February, the United States expelled the U.N. correspondent of the official Iraqi News Agency, Mohammad Hassan Allawi. Last June U.S. officials expelled a first secretary at Iraq's U.N. mission.

Allawi, 38, had been the INA correspondent at the United Nations for two years. He lived in Manhattan with his wife and five children, aged 8 to 16, who attend New York public schools. The U.N. Correspondents Association protested his expulsion to Secretary of State Colin Powell and asked for an explanation, which it did not receive.