Iran must bear the consequences of any new confrontation between U.S. and Iranian vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a senior U.S. official warned on Wednesday.

Washington says Iranian boats aggressively approached three U.S. Naval ships in the waterway, a major oil shipping route off Iran's coast, and threatened that the ships would explode.

"This was a very provocative act by the Iranians and could have and came very close to resulting in an altercation between our forces and their forces," Stephen Hadley, President George W. Bush's national security adviser.

Hadley, traveling with Bush on his first official visit to Israel, said the incident nearly led to an exchange of fire.

The United States released a video of the weekend incident, including a recording of what it said was the exchange between the two sides.

Iran rejected the footage as fake and accused Washington of trying to stir up tension in the region.

"America aims to implement this plan saying Iran has been and is the source of fear in the Middle East," Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar was quoted by state television as saying.

"Iranian craft always ask other ships to identify themselves and this is what they did to the American ships. American ships answered and that was it."

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