Washington - Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi, who was held for more than three months in a Tehran prison after being convicted of spying, has left the Iranian capital after her release early this week, her employer said.

Saberi departed Thursday with her parents for Austria and they plan to soon return to the United States, US National Public Radio reported, citing a friend travelling with the family.

Saberi's release on Monday came after an appeals court revised a lower court's eight-year jail sentence and converted it into a two-year suspended term.

She had been arrested in January and convicted of spying for the United States after an April 13 closed-door trial.

The 32-year-old Saberi, who worked as a freelance reporter for National Public Radio as well as other news organizations, had lived in Iran for six years and is from Fargo, North Dakota,

Political considerations were seen as being behind her release at a time when neither Tehran nor Washington wish to increase tensions.