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Provided by AFP A hostage runs towards police from a cafe in the central business district of Sydney on December 15, 2014

Iran repeatedly warned Australia about the criminal past of the perpetrator of the Sydney cafe siege and called for him to be kept under surveillance, top officials in Tehran said.

Man Haron Monis, the Iranian-born self-styled cleric who died along with two of the people he had taken hostage, was being investigated over fraud charges when he fled in 1996, police said.

But Iran's deputy foreign minister for Asia and Oceania affairs, Ebrahim Rahimpour, said Australia ignored the guidance sent.

"Despite several notifications to the Australian government regarding his criminal background, no attention was paid," Rahimpour told state television late Tuesday.

"We provided information and asked them to watch this person but unfortunately they did not pay attention.

"The Australian government acted very poorly as far as security and protective standards were concerned."

Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Wednesday ordered an urgent inquiry into why Monis, a 50-year-old who was facing serious charges but out on bail, was not under surveillance and how he obtained citizenship.

Iran's police chief, Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam, said Monis was known as Manteghi and managing a travel agency when he fled in 1996, leaving behind a wife and two children.

He travelled first to Malaysia and then on to Australia where he landed as a refugee but later obtained citizenship. An extradition request from Tehran in 2000 was unsuccessful, Moghaddam said on the Iranian police website.

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Iran says Australia ignored warnings about gunman