Iran has pledged US$250m (€188.8m) in aid to the cash-strapped Hamas-led Palestinian government, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said today.

Iraq’s prime minister declared a state of emergency in once peaceful and oil-rich Basra, as the sectarian and militia violence engulfing the country’s capital spread to its southern economic heartland.

Iran is ready for a conditional return to intrusive inspections of its nuclear programme, but uranium enrichment will continue, a senior official said today.

An Iranian nuclear official said today that the Tehran government was ready for a conditional return to "intrusive" inspections but that uranium enrichment will continue.

Iran’s foreign minister yesterday demanded the immediate withdrawal of British forces from Basra, saying their presence had destabilised Iraq’s second-largest city.

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz yesterday hinted that Israel is preparing for military action to stop Iran’s nuclear program, but said international diplomacy must be the first course of action.

AT A time of growing nuclear tensions in the world, UN secretary general Kofi Annan yesterday urged non-weapons states like Iran to step back from the nuclear temptation.

POLICE freed 56 Iranian monarchists after removing them from a plane at Brussels airport yesterday, ending a 15-hour protest by the group against the Tehran government.

Iran acknowledged for the first time today it has convicted some Iranians of supporting al-Qaida.

Demonstrators today threw rocks, rotten fruit and two Molotov cocktails at the British embassy in Tehran, diplomatic sources said.

FEARS have heightened for the safety of kidnapped Irish tourist Aidan Leahy who went missing in the region of Iran devastated by yesterday’s earthquake.

The European Union risks encouraging Islamic extremists in Iran by continuing to deal with the Tehran government, a US diplomat warned today.