Tehran - Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami Monday hosted an international religious conference aimed at differentiating between Islam the religion and Islamism as an ideology for terrorism.

The conference, titled Religion in the Modern World, was organized by the Dialogue Among Civilizations' Centre, an Iranian non-governmental organization headed by Khatami; the Club of Madrid, an independent organization promoting democracy; and the Oslo Centre for Peace and Human Rights, headed by former Norwegian premier Kjell Magne Bondevik.

Tehran  - Iranian opposition groups are gradually preparing to mount a challenge to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in next June's presidential elections, local media reported Saturday.

Mehdi Karroubi, the 71-year-old head of the moderate Etemad Melli (National Trust) party, will most likely be the first to confirm his candidacy for the June 12, 2009 elections in a press conference on Sunday.

Tehran - The Iranian capital Tehran on Tuesday opened the Milad Tower which is said to be the world's fourth highest building for telecommunications.

Only the telecommunication towers of Toronto (553.3 metres), Moscow (533.3 metres) and Shanghai (500 metres) are higher than the Milad Tower in western Tehran with a height of 435 metres, media reports in Iran said.

The tower, owned by the Tehran municipality, is also supposed to serve as a commercial and entertainment centre.

Tehran - Iranian military jets forced a US Falcon plane with five senior US military officials on board to land in Iran, Fars news agency reported Tuesday.

The plane coming from Turkey had illegally entered Iranian airspace and was therefore forced by Iranian jets to land at one of the country's airports.

The Fars report did not say when and where the plane was forced to land.

Tehran  - Iraq's parliamentary speaker Mahmoud al-Mashhadani arrived in Tehran Tuesday for a two-day visit after his plane was intially refused permission to land the day before, Fars news agency reported.

The Sunni politician was to meet his Iranian counterpart Ali Larijani as well as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to discuss the latest developments in Iraq, including its security pact with the United States, Fars said.

Tehran- Iran has sent a new letter to the European Union over the ongoing nuclear dispute, ISNA news agency reported Monday.

ISNA quoted an unnamed official as saying that the Iranian ambassador in Brussels would deliver a letter by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili to EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Monday.

Without disclosing any details about the contents of the letter, the official just said that the letter deals with the latest developments in the nuclear dispute and the recent approach by the West against Iran.