The United States is trying to confirm the promised release of two American hikers convicted in Iran on charges of spying.

In an interview broadcast Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a correspondent for the U.S. television network NBC that he thinks Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal will be freed on humanitarian grounds within “a couple of days.”

The U.S. State Department said Tuesday it has yet to receive any confirmation a release is near.

The State Department says it is working with Switzerland, which represents U.S. interests in Iran, to get more information.

Bauer and Fatal were sentenced to eight-year prison terms last month for spying on Iran. Iran freed a third hiker, Sarah Shourd, a year ago after she posted a $500,000 bond. She returned to the United States. The lawyer for Bauer and Fattal said Tuesday bail for the two men had also been set at $500,000.

Iranian authorities arrested the three American hikers in the Iran-Iraq border area in mid-2009. The trio were hiking in northern Iraq and has insisted that if they strayed over the border, it was inadvertent.

Supporters of the hikers denounced their sentences, saying Iranian prosecutors had presented no credible evidence against them.