TEHRAN, Dec 5: Iran's embattled President Mohammad Khatami, isolated as one of the few reformists left in office, has admitted that he cannot wait until his second and final term in office ends next year.

"I am counting the moments for my involvement in political affairs to be over," he was quoted as saying during a meeting on Saturday with staff from the student news agency ISNA.

Rather than stay in politics, Khatami said he wanted to "enjoy my old age in a university atmosphere." After a stint as the Islamic republic's culture minister and then in the national library, Khatami was elected president with a majority in 1997 and again in 2001 after he reluctantly decided to contest re-election. -AFP