Tehran  - Iran has appointed Mohammad Mayelikohan as national football team coach in succession of Ali Daei, Iranian media reported on Tuesday.

The reports said the Iranian Football Federation (FFI) appointed Mayelikohan late Monday. Mayelikohan trained the national team 1995- 1997 and is currently coach of the Saipa Karaj club.

Daei had to leave after a 2-1 home defeat against Saudi Arabia in a World Cup qualifier on March 28 which left Iran with an uphill battle to qualify for the 2010 finals in South Africa.

Tehran - Moderate Iranian presidential hopeful Mir-Hossein Moussavi on Monday accused President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of being a radical, particularly in foreign policy.

In his first news conference in Tehran, the former prime minister accused the hardline president of radical policies that "severely harmed our national interests."

"Extremism brings heavy costs for us, such as chanting harshly worded slogans and at the same time talking about friendship with Israeli nation," he said.

Tehran  - The presidents of Iran and Venezuela after talks Thursday said they had decided to increase cooperation in tackling the global economic crisis, Iran's state television network IRIB reported.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said after his first meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that the Tehran summit would see the drafting of a bilateral
10-year plan for the crisis.

Tehran - Tehran on Wednesday categorically denied a meeting between officials of Iran and the United States occurred at a UN conference in the Netherlands, the Mehr news agency reported.

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had said the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, met briefly Tuesday with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mehdi Akhunzadeh at the conference on Afghanistan in The Hague.

Tehran  - Ali Daei was dismissed as Iran coach after a 2-1 home defeat against Saudi Arabia in a World Cup qualifier, ISNA news agency reported on Sunday.

Other news agencies also confirmed Daei's dismissal, including official news agency IRNA.

ISNA had earlier Sunday quoted Iranian Football Federation (FFI) president Ali Kafashian as saying that an emergency FFI session was held in this regard.

Tehran  - Iran had no hostility toward the United States but requires signs of amity to put an end to three decades of diplomatic estrangement, ex-president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani said at a Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran.

"We have no hostility with the American nation, but there should be some signs of goodwill to change the status quo," said Rafsanjani, who still plays an influential role in the Iranian political scene as head of the Experts Assembly, a powerful religious body.