22 January 2004	Thursday	29 Ziqa'ad 1424

TEHRAN, Jan 21: Several ministers and vice-presidents in Iran's reformist government have submitted their resignations to protest the mass disqualification of candidates from next month's parliamentary elections , Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi said on Wednesday.

President Mohammad Khatami, however, ruled out any possibility that he also would resign and, instead, said he would do all he could to ensure a free and fair vote next month.

"I have the intention to continue my task and my service to the people," President Khatami said in an interview with a Swiss television network. Earlier in the day, Ali Abtahi had told reporters that the president and his reformist government were ready to quit over the hardline Guardian Council's decision to bar nearly half of 8,200 hopefuls from the Feb 20 vote.

Mr Abtahi later clarified that his remarks repeated a threat by senior government officials last week and previous comments by Mr Khatami that reformists should either stick together or leave together.

Asked if he thought the vote would be free and fair, President Khatami said: "Yes, I hope so. All my efforts will go in this direction." Mr Abtahi, speaking after a cabinet meeting, had said the ministers and vice-president would quit unless the powerful conservatives who drew up the blacklist backed down in what has been seen as a bid to purge the regime of moderates.

"A certain number of ministers and vice presidents have resigned," Abtahi told reporters after a cabinet meeting. But he said they would stay on pending appeals lodged with the Guardians Council.

"It is natural that they wait for the outcome," Mr Abtahi said, without naming the cabinet members who had decided to resign. Nor did Abtahi, an outspoken reformer who is believed to be among those ready to step down, say whether a deadline had been set.

However, he did refer to a threat made by embattled President Mohammad Khatami last week, in which he vowed to lead a mass walk-out of reformists by saying, "If one day we are asked to leave, then we will all leave, together."

But speaking from Davos, Switzerland, where he was due to address the World Economic Forum, Khatami said he intended to carry on in his job. "I intend even now to complete my duties," he told Swiss television SFDRS, in comments reported by the Swiss news agency ATS. "What is happening now in Iran is natural and, God willing, I shall be successful on my path."

But in a further sign the crisis was far from over, Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mussavi Lari accused hardliners of failing to apply directives from Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei aimed at resolving the bitter standoff.

"Since the declarations of the supreme leader ..., we have seen no action on the part of the Guardians Council that goes in the direction of what the supreme leader said," he told the student news agency ISNA.

The Guardians Council, a 12-member body that screens all legislation and candidates, plunged Iran into one of its most serious crises when it disqualified 3,605 of the 8,157 people seeking to stand for the parliament, or Majlis.

Most were reformists. Among those figuring on the blacklist were prominent figures in the reform movement and some 83 incumbent MPs. Just four days into the crisis, Khamenei ordered the council, all of whose members he directly or indirectly appoints, to be less stringent in its vetting procedure.

On Tuesday, the council reinstated 200 candidates. Another 100 were given the green light to run on Wednesday, though none of them included sitting MPs.

But the interior minister said the council was dragging its feet. "We should not lose time. The Guardians Council should understand the realities of the country and in a short timeframe should bring this situation to an end," said Mussavi-Lari, whose ministry is responsible for organising the polls.-AFP