TEHRAN The former Shah of Iran may have taken a "rather somber view of 1969, in which he has been faced with external political and internal economic problems," according to the annual review of the British ambassador to Tehran at the time.

Classified documents newly released under Britain's 30-year rule reported "tense exchanges" during the year between the oil consortium and the Shah over his demands for more oil revenue to pay for his crash program of the modernization of the armed forces.

"The declassification of document is welcome, but the fact is that just like what happened in the case of U.S. CIA declassification of Shah's coup against Mosaddeq, it is not complete."

We must be sure that such a declassification only serves their own interest," while it is against the law to retain part of the documents, he said.

"Without any doubt the British are following a certain goal which serve their interests only," he said, adding, this is why they have not revealed the entire document.

On the diplomatic front, the annual report also described Iran's relations with the rest of the Islamic world as "unproductive." There were concerns about Iraq, a rupture in relations with Nasser's Egypt, minimal ties with Syria and the break-off of relations with Lebanon.

"Looking at the Persian Gulf, the way in which Iran would have to assume her inevitable role after the British withdrawal in 1971 was perplexing in terms both of political relationships and of military reorganization and expenditure," it said.

The confidential review on Iran, written in January 1970, also referred to 1969 as being a year of "intense secret negotiations" with regard to the former Shah's "embarrassing claim to Bahrain."

Progress in the negotiations could not have been faster because the Shah's "own impatience was constantly tempered by his fear that history would reveal him as colluding with the British and selling Iran's claims short," it said.

Later in May 1970, British ambassador Dennis Wright wrote a secret memo to the Foreign Office in London, saying the Shah was "once again in one of his black moods and we, the British, are the villains of the piece."

He warned that the Shah's "knife" was out for him and that unless he could clear the air his role as ambassador to Tehran "during the tricky months ahead will be severely diminished."

Wright suggested that there had been a "number of different elements at work in the Shah's mind for some time," naming his continuing clash with the oil consortium over revenue and the "failure of his Iraqi policy" following an attempted coup in Baghdad.

"Someone (Russians, Israelis, French?) has, it seems, successfully planted in the Shah's mind the thought that we are supporting the renegade General Bakhtiar (now working against Iran from Baghdad) and that we warned the Iraqis of the attempted January coup," he said.