TEHRAN, Sept 26: Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has postponed a visit to Turkey after the parliament threw into doubt two major contracts signed with Turkish companies, an official said on Sunday.

The reformist president's visit, scheduled for Tuesday, "has been postponed until we reach an agreement inside Iran on these contracts, so that then we can agree with the outside world," government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh said.

Khatami's political rivals in parliament earlier on Sunday passed a bill giving them veto power over an airport operating contract signed with a Turkish-led consortium and a deal signed with Turkcell, Turkey's biggest mobile phone operator, to set up the first Iranian private mobile phone network.

The parliament, or Majlis, had given preliminary approval to a bill giving it a veto power on all major foreign investment contracts, but watered down the bill during its final reading on Sunday. But Ramazanzadeh said this was "insufficient".

"The government is still hostile to this law," he said. Turkcell was awarded the contract in a tender in February to become - under the name Irancell - Iran's second mobile phone operator. The deal is conditional on the payment of a 300-million-euro (366-million-dollar) licence fee.

The company would be expected to invest up to three billion dollars in the project, which would rank among the largest foreign investments in Iran since the Islamic revolution 25 years ago.

Hardliners have argued that having a telephone network run by a foreign company is contrary to national security, and could facilitate phone tapping or suspension of the service.

The parliament bill also targets a 200-million-dollar contract with Tepe-Akfen-Vie (TAV) - an Turkish-Austrian consortium - for construction and operations at Imam Khomeini International Airport, a new airport to serve the Iranian capital. -AFP