WASHINGTON - The mothers of Minnesota native Shane Bauer and two other U.S. hikers being held in Iran say they are encouraged by an Iranian government report on Monday suggesting that they might be allowed to visit their children.

But with nearly no contact with their children in the nine months since their arrest on the Iran-Iraq border, the families remain guarded.

"We've gotten no official word that our visas have been processed," said Bauer's mother, Cindy Hickey of Pine City, Minn. "We've been here before too many times. I'm personally really careful to listen, and be ready."

Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, said on state television Monday that his government had ordered the visas to be issued on humanitarian grounds. The decision comes a week after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad attended a nuclear nonproliferation conference in New York, where Hickey tried to meet him.

However uncertain, the Iranians' latest statement is the best news Hickey has received since one brief phone call from Bauer in March.

"We've never gotten this release to state-run TV, so to me, that indicates that there's a more solid possibility that we'll be traveling in the future," Hickey said. "I am more optimistic."

The report on Iran's Press TV is consistent with signals the families have received in recent days from other government contacts. A U.S. State Department official told the Associated Press that the Iranian Foreign Ministry had notified the Swiss Embassy in Tehran -- which represents U.S. interests -- that the visas would be approved. It is not yet clear when the visit would take place.

"We have very reliable diplomatic channels, and we continue to be optimistic," said Laura Fattal, the mother of Joshua Fattal, who is believed to be sharing a prison cell in Tehran with Bauer. The third hiker, Sarah Shourd, has been held separately since their arrest July 31 after apparently straying across the border on a hike in Iraq's Kurdistan region.

The three hikers, all graduates of the University of California, Berkeley, are suspected in Iran of spying, though the government has brought no formal charges. Bauer, 27, is a freelance journalist based in the Middle East. Shourd, his 31-year-old girlfriend, and Fattal, 27, a friend, accompanied him on the hiking trip.

According to government officials on Iran's Press TV, the three knowingly crossed into Iran, ignoring warnings from area residents.

In a news conference last week in Washington, Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar, both Minnesota Democrats, maintained that the three hikers were simply on a sightseeing trip and he called for their release.

In a statement Monday, Franken said he was "cautiously optimistic that the mothers will be able to visit their children." Klobuchar called it a "welcome development."

Hickey and Fattal said they are ready to go on a moment's notice. Said Hickey: "I've been packed for several weeks."

Kevin Diaz is a correspondent in the Star Tribune Washington Bureau.