Tehran - Middle East peace pacts will not solve the dilemma in the Middle East, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Monday told former United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and several former heads of Western states.

Annan and the Western dignitaries were in Tehran for attending a religious conference initiated by Ahmadinejad's opponent and ex- president Mohammad Khatami.

Tehran - Moderate cleric Mehdi Karroubi became the first candidate to officially declare his nomination Sunday for next June's presidential elections to challenge Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The 71-year-old cleric is head of the moderate opposition party Etemad Melli (National Trust) and the party's choice run in the June 12 elections.

"It will be quite difficult but I am still ready to take the challenge for changing the political status quo," Karroubi said in a press conference in Tehran.

The cleric referred to the president's economic and foreign policies as the main problems of the current administration which should be amended.

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday said that Iran would react favourably to positive signals by political arch-foe United States.

"Our stance remains the same: we would react favourably to any positive signals (by the US) indicating the will for communication on the basis of respect and justice," Ahmadinejad told state-television in an interview.

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday dismissed Western allegations of discriminating religious minorities and said that all minorities were part of the "grand Iranian family," the news network Khabar reported.

"The enemies (of Iran) play some games by claiming discord between Iran and religious minorities but these games will have no impacts as we are all part of the grand Iranian family," Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with the parliament deputies representing the religious minorities in Iran.

Munich - Iran poses a threat to Israel as well as to democratic states in the West, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany warned on Friday.

The dimension of threat posed to Jews and the entire free world was being underestimated, Charlotte Knobloch said at a reception marking the Jewish New Year's festival Rosh Hashanah.

"Atom bombs in the hands of the rulers in Tehran pose a threat to all democratic states," she said, referring to Iran's controversial nuclear programme.

New York, Sept 25 : In the wake of the fresh spate of suicide attacks in Pakistan, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said that terrorism in Pakistan and Afghanistan needed a ‘negotiated settlement’ and not a “military action”.

He said that as the British and Soviet forces failed to resolve the Afghan crisis, the US-led NATO troops could also not do any better in Pakistan.