The United Nations General Assembly designated the year 2001, as the Year of Dialogue Among Civilization on President Khatami's initiative.

Asefi told a press conference that the Iranian president will address the General Assembly on Iran's views on dialogue of civilizations and the international developments.

"Since President Khatami put forward the initiative of civilizational dialogue at the General Assembly, the international community has taken major steps toward understanding among diverse civilizations and realized the point that the world is in dire need of dialogue to help solve the international crises," Asefi said.

He said that the initiative is rooted in Islamic teachings adding that dialogue of civilizations deal with concerns of the peoples of the world about the threats to which the achievements of human beings and the moral values are exposed.

"The wide-scale welcome the international community accorded to President Khatami's proposal indicated that dialogue of civilizations is the effective means to help solve international crises and uproot terrorism and that the nations of the world are determined to avoid a clash of civilizations," the foreign ministry spokesman pointed out.

He said that following the UN General Assembly resolution naming the year of civilizational dialogue, Iran has worked with the international community to prepare the ground for approval of an action plan to go ahead with dialogue of civilizations through the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) which provided a draft action plan in specialized meetings in Tehran and Jeddah and New York and delivered the draft to the General Assembly.

Asefi said that the draft action plan has been provided in close contact with the United Nations member states and that the General Assembly is expected to approve the action plan for dialogue of civilizations this year.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran believes that human beings in the present century should make every endeavor to promote dialogue to foster the peaceful means for the international crises. Iran regards civilizational dialogue as the key to human dignity and an invaluable heritage for generations to come," Asefi said.

A reporter asked the spokesman about Pakistan's double standard and whether Tehran and Islamabad exchange views.

Asefi said that Iran and Pakistan are in touch and of course, the next Afghan government will be established under the aegis of the United Nations through consultation with the regional states.

Asked about the role of the government of President Burhanuddin Rabbani in the next government, Asefi said that Iran believes that the next government of Afghanistan should include all the ethnic groups. Of course, President Rabbani's government is the legitimate government of Afghanistan which holds the Afghan seat of the United Nations and it can work as the transitional government until the formation of the broad-based government.

He made it clear that exercising influence on composition of the next government and giving prescription from abroad to Afghanistan will not work and that the Afghan people themselves should democratically decide on the composition of next government. Of course the influential neighbors, the group six-plus-two and the United Nations should help the Afghans in this respect, he stressed.

Responding to a question about dispatch of Turkish peacekeeping force to Afghanistan, Asefi said that dispatch of peacekeeping force is something that the United Nations should approve and it requires certain procedures, so it is too soon to speculate about that.

He categorically rejected that a Taliban delegation has visited Iran and said that the current situation of the Afghan refugees necessitated that provincial officials review the plight of refugees on the border areas with Taliban provincial officials.

An American reporter asked Asefi about relations with the United States, Asefi said that Iran does not consider direct talks with the United States, because Iran thinks that the U.S. officials are not sincere and doubts that the U.S. would change its behavior toward the country.

Asefi dismissed the speculations about the dispatch of 1,500 Iranian troops to Afghanistan and said that not a single group has been dispatched. The borders are sealed by the Iranian troops, he said.

On Taliban's role in composition of the next government, he said that the Taliban are not representatives of Pashtuns. They caused bitter memory for Afghans. Of course, it is up to Pashtuns themselves whether they elect Taliban as their representative, he pointed out.

On Iran-EU talks on Afghanistan, he said that Iran is pressing for a solution to guarantee peace and stability in Afghanistan and that country should not become a trouble spot for neighboring states.

He deplored that Afghanistan has become a pretext for some world powers to fight Islam. Fortunately, the European countries admitted that Islam has nothing to do with terrorism, said Asefi.