In a recent interview with the Persian journal Siasat-e Rouz, he also cast doubt on the truth of alleged involvement of his former deputy, Saeed Emami, in the serial murders of several intellectuals and political activists committed in 1998.

"Saeed Emami has not been proven to be a bad person or that he committed suicide. Furthermore, it has to yet to be proven whether he was implicated in the serial murders," the journal quoted him as saying.

Emami reportedly committed suicide in prison in 1999 by swallowing a domestically made hair remover.

In February, some 100 pro-reform parliamentary deputies signed a petition asking for greater transparency on the circumstances surrounding the murders, purportedly the work of rogue agents of the information ministry.

"Some of the deputies' demands are for a full disclosure of the facts surrounding the murders, particularly their exact number, nature and roots. I think parliament will get to know the facts through legal channels," a deputy was cited as saying.

A military court announced it had sentenced three information agents to death and five others to life terms after having been found guilty of murdering nationalists Darioush and Parvaneh Forouhar and writers Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Jafar Pouyandeh.

Seven of the 18 defendants, all information ministry personnel, received lesser jail terms. Three were acquitted.

The trial of the accused was boycotted by families of the victims in protest to the court's decision to hold the trial under closed doors and what they claimed was the removal of key evidence from the court's files.

Subsequently, they voiced out their disapproval to the sentences imposed on those found guilty, saying they were not seeking a "vendetta" from the court.

Press reports also alleged existence of a "hit list" of more than 40 names for possible "elimination" prepared by implicated former agents of the information ministry, some of who were later found guilty of the murder charges.

Information Minister Ali Younessi, in a statement after the convictions were handed down, said that the judge's 17-page ruling was "conclusive" and the case effectively closed.

Fallahian, himself implicated in the murders, has expressed his firm intention to run in the June presidential elections, brushing off the murder cases as having no effect on his candidacy.

"If Emami had had a role in the murders, that was in the year after he took over as deputy. Thus, what the case has to do with me?" he was quoted as asking in the journal.

On his decision to run in the June presidential race, Fallahian said he has consulted with former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on the matter.

The former minister also lashed out at President Mohammad Khatami for talking too much and taking little action.