Iran's state-run television broadcaster has said deals have been reached between the Islamic Republic, Washington and the United Kingdom to swap prisoners for billions of dollars.
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But the announcement has been denied by the US and downplayed by the UK.
The announcement by state television, relying on an unnamed source, comes amid a wider power struggle between hard-liners and the relatively moderate government of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. That conflict only has grown sharper as Iran approaches its June 18 presidential election.
The broadcaster long controlled by hard-liners has aired similarly anonymously sourced reports contradicting diplomats in Vienna trying to negotiate a return to its nuclear deal with world powers.
It wasn't immediately clear if Sunday's report represented another means to disrupt negotiations by Rouhani officials or sabotage any potential negotiations with the West over frozen funds and prisoner exchanges.
The official quoted by Iranian state TV said a deal made between the US and Tehran involved a prisoner swap in exchange for the release of $US7billion ($A9.1Billion) in frozen Iranian funds.
US State Department spokesman Ned Price immediately denied the Iranian state TV report.
State TV also quoted the official as saying a deal had been reached for the United Kingdom to pay 400 million pounds ($A700 million) to see the release of British-Iranian woman Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe.
British officials downplayed the report.
The Foreign Office said that the country continues "to explore options to resolve this 40-year old case and we will not comment further as legal discussions are ongoing."
Last week, Zaghari-Ratcliffe was sentenced to an additional year in prison, her lawyer said, on charges of spreading "propaganda against the system" for participating in a protest in front of the Iranian Embassy in London in 2009.
That came after she completed a five-year prison sentence in the Islamic Republic after being convicted of plotting the overthrow of Iran's government, a charge that she, her supporters and rights groups deny.
Richard Ratcliffe, the husband of Zaghari-Ratcliffe, told The Associated Press he was not aware of any swap in the works.
"We haven't heard anything," he said. "Of course we probably wouldn't, but my instinct is to be skeptical at present."
Tehran holds four known Americans now in prison. They include Baquer and Siamak Namazi, environmentalist Morad Tahbaz and Iranian-American businessman Emad Shargi.
Australian Associated Press
