TEHRAN -- Iran on Wednesday released the last of 682 Iraqi Prisoners of War (POWs) in accordance with recent negotiations by the two countries to resume the exchange of POWs of the 1980-1988 war, a Deputy Head at the Kermanshah Governor's Office, Ali-Asghar Jamshid-Nejad, said in Qasr-e Shirin.

The released POWs were handed over to Iraqi officials at the Khosravi Border in the western city of Qasr-e Shirin in Kermanshah Province, he said, adding that the release came following Iraq's freeing of 46 Iranian prisoners of war.

The release of the POWs started on Monday, Jamshid-Nejad said, IRNA reported.

"The exchange of POWs for this phase is complete and it is hoped that further exchanges will continue next week, given the recent negotiations by the two countries' officials," Jamshid-Nejad, who is in charge of the political and security affairs of the Kermanshah Governor's Office, said.

The latest releases come following the return of an Iranian delegation which visited Baghdad recently to negotiate on the fate of the remaining Prisoners of War.

The issue of Prisoners of War and those Missing in Action (MIAs) has been one of the major stumbling blocks to normalization of ties between Tehran and Baghdad since the cease-fire in 1988 which ended the war. Since then the two countries have exchanged more than 100,000 Prisoners of War from both sides.

The Islamic Republic says more than 3,000 of its forces are still held in Iraqi prisons and refutes Baghdad's claims that it holds nearly 29,000 Iraqi soldiers.