10 February 2004	Tuesday	18 Zilhaj 1424

BAM, Feb 9: Britain's Prince Charles offered sympathy on Monday to earthquake survivors during the first visit by a British royal to Iran - dubbed an "axis of evil" member by Washington - since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Prince Charles, whose trip is expected to cement much improved ties between London and Tehran, spoke to medics, city planners and farmers in the ancient citadel city of Bam, where more than 40,000 people died in an earthquake on Dec 26.

"I wish we could do more. We've been trying to gather more assistance in Britain," the prince said while talking to Barani Baravati, a date farmer now living in a tent on the outskirts of the ruined city.

Charles was later shown the Silk Road city's ancient citadel, whose mud-brick walls crumbled like a sandcastle in the quake. Onlookers were puzzled by the prince's unannounced arrival.

"Why has he come here?" one woman asked a journalist. "Is he going to rebuild the city?" The last official visit by British royals to Iran was by the late Queen Mother, Prince Charles's grandmother, in 1975 when Iran was still ruled by the late monarch, Mohammad Reza Shah.

Iran is now in the throes of its worst political crisis for years. President Mohammad Khatami and his reformist allies are outraged by a hardline body's move to disqualify hundreds of candidates from parliamentary elections this month.

According to the official IRNA news agency, President Mohammad Khatami told Charles during a brief meeting in Tehran that Iran's recent negotiations with European countries over its nuclear programme were a sign of better relations with the West. -Reuters