Tehran  - The Iranian Football Federation (FFI) on Wednesday appointed Iranian-American Afshin Qotbi as new head coach for the country's national football team, ISNA news agency reported.

FFI vice-president Mehdi Taj told ISNA that Qotbi lead Iran's national football team in the remaining three World Cup qualification games against North and South Korea and the United Arab Emirates.

Qotbi has already signed the contract and will come to Tehran on Thursday, Taj said.

The FFI deputy added that Qotbi will have one Dutch and one Iranian assistant.

Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinjed said Wednesday he had expected his US counterpart, Barack Obama, would have attended the UN racism conference in Geneva in order to prove his willingness to change American policy.

"The new US president, who claims to want change, should have come to Geneva and voiced his opposition to any form of racism," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Varamin, south-east of the capital Tehran.

Tehran - Iran on Wednesday reiterated its willingness to resume nuclear talks with world powers.

In a statement by the National Security Council, Iran once again declared its readiness to resume a dialogue with the five permanent UN Security Council member states - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - plus Germany.

Iran, however, noted that it would continue its nuclear programmes within the framework of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Tehran  - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Wednesday termed the UN anti-racism conference in Geneva a defeat for Israel, Fars news agency reported.

"They [the Israelis] wanted to make a new interpretation of racism but for the first time [at an international conference], the freedom spirit of the nations and governments neutralized the Zionists' [Israel's] evil plans and became victorious," Ahmadinejad said.

Tehran, Apr. 22 : Iranian filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi has written a public love letter to his fiancée Roxana Saberi, the American-Iranian journalist sentenced by Iran on spying charges.

Ghobadi, whose love letter proclaims Saberi’s innocence and denounces her imprisonment, hopes his words can succeed where Barack Obama’s have failed.

In a move that has become the latest standoff between Tehran and Washington, Saberi was given an eight-year jail sentence.

Brasilia - Brazil condemned Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's verbal attack on Israel at a UN racism conference as it prepares for a May 6 visit by the Iranian leader.

Ahmadinejad trivialized the meaning of tragic and historically established events like the Holocaust, Brazil's Foreign Relations Ministry said Tuesday in a statement.

Such comments damage the climate for dialogue and the understanding necessary for international efforts to end discrimination, it added.