EU pushing Iran to release detained Swedish EU employee

Sept 5 (Reuters) - The EU has been working for months to push for the release of a Swedish EU worker detained in Iran for the last 500 days, the bloc's top diplomat Josep Borrell said on Tuesday.

Sweden and the European Commission on Monday said a Swedish national is being detained in Iran, following a report in The New York Times.

Borrell on Tuesday confirmed the man in question is Johan Floderus, who he described as "a Swedish citizen who works for the European Union, who has been detained illegally in Iran for the last 500 days."

"I want to stress that I personally, all my team, at all levels, in close coordination with Swedish authorities and with his family have been pushing Iranian authorities to release him," Borrell said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU development ministers in Cadiz, Spain.

The issue of his imprisonment had been raised repeatedly with Iranian authorities, he added.

"Every time we had diplomatic meetings, at all levels, we put the issue on the table," he said.

"Relentlessly we have been working for the freedom of Mr Floderus and we will continue doing that. This is very much in our agenda, in our heart and we will not stop until Mr Floderus will be free."

Reporting by Bart Meijer Editing by Alexandra Hudson