Bani-Sadr confirms that CIA tried to recruit him

A CIA agent, using the cover of a Philadelphia firm, tried to enlist Abolhassan Bani-Sadr as a paid consultant before he became president of Iran, published reports quoting alleged captured secret documents said Sunday.

The reports were based upon papers purported to have been pieced together by Iranian revolutionaries who seized the US Embassy in Tehran in 1979. The documents were said to have been used to depose Bani-Sadr from power.

The Washington Post and the Boston Globe carried similar accounts in their Sunday editions. The CIA had no comment on the report.

Mr. Bani-Sadr, now living in exile in France, confirmed to the Post that he had met with an American who proposed paying him $5,000 per month. ''I told him to go away,'' he said.

The documents are reported to be included in volumes of alleged secrets the militants put back together and are now for sale at corner newspaper stands in Iran. US authorities seized volumes being brought into the United States by three journalists.