Tehran, Dec 20, IRNA -- Substitute Leader of the Tehran Friday Prayers Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati blasted those internal and foreign agents who are after creating tension and trouble in the Islamic society of Iran.

Addressing thousands of worshipers gathered at the Tehran University campus for the weekly congregational prayers, Ayatollah Jannati said in an Islamic society the universities and the theological schools are interconnected.

Jannati who is Secretary of the Guardian Council said in Iran the university students and the clergy are well united.

However there are a small number of students and academics who have not enjoyed the lofty instructions and values of Islam and that is why they spark trouble and tensions at times in the campus circles, Jannati said.

This small crowd of students are making hue and cry and outrage the Islamic sanctities and the Iranian Muslim people, he said while referring to the recently held students protests in Tehran and provinces.

The university officials have to deal with the trouble-making" students before the country authorities think of dealing with them, he noted.

The student rallies on December 7 followed campus demonstrations held to denounce the judiciary sentencing to death for blasphemy of Academic Hashem Aghajari.

Aghajari was earlier sentenced to death by a court in the western Iranian city of Hamedan on November 6 for allegedly insulting Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him).

The death sentence drew sharp angry criticism in Iran, with students staging several days of rally to call on the Judiciary to suspend the ruling. Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei accordingly ordered the Judiciary to review the case.

Ayatollah Jannati further said those students who have been behind the trouble in the country were enjoying the support of elements outside the university.

He then commented on the case of the pollsters and said what has been discovered was only part of the illegal actions done.

Referring to the statements by the minister of interior on the pollsters case, he said who is responsible for discovering these illegal acts if the intelligence ministry is unable to do the job.

The move by the pollsters to conduct an opinion poll on the resumption of talks with the United States is meant to weaken the will of the people against the Americans.

Jannati said the foreigners are after creating a false atmosphere in the country to contribute to tensions in the country but the agents of enemy have acknowledged to the offenses and to their links with the foreign elements and the enemies of the Islamic Revolution.

The Ayatollah termed as "treason" the acts of the pollsters and thank the Judiciary to severely deal with the agents behind the public opinion.

The poll drew the wrath of Iranian authorities and sparked judicial proceedings against Behrouz Geranpayeh, the head of a polling institute linked to that poll.

Geranpayeh was accused of spying and collaborating with an armed opposition group and his institute has been shut down. Others, including journalist Abbas Abdi, have also been arrested and are being investigated for links to the controversial poll.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Jannati further thanked the Culture and Islamic Guidance Minister Ahmad Masjed Jamei for having asked fingerprinting the American journalists entering Iran.

Journalists from the United States visiting Iran are set to be fingerprinted on entry in a tit-for-tat response to harsh new US immigration checks against Iranians travelling to that country.

The measure followed a letter by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and only includes American journalists, Iran's culture ministry said adding that it had called for the measure in the light of the recent insults by US government officials towards Iranian nationals.

The ministry had demanded that US journalists fill in lengthy forms providing full personal details and contact numbers so they can be constantly reached when in the Islamic Republic.

The United States has also recently refused visas to award-winning movie directors Abbas Kiarostami and Bahman Ghobadi, even though the pair had been invited to attend film festivals.

Ayatollah Jannati further blasted the United States for pursuing the bullying tactics in the Middle East region and called on the Iranian people to get vigilant vis-a-vis the enemies policies.

He stressed that the Iranian people remain committed to the directives given by the late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini and would make no compromise with the US leaders.

He vociferated against "some American agents who have infiltrated into the Iranian society and are encouraging resumption of talks with the United States".

He called on the Iranian nation to get more united to neutralize the ploys hatched by the US officials against Iran and Islam.

The US is hatching ploy to launch attacks against Islam under the pretext of fighting terrorism, he said adding that it is in line with the same inhuman policy that the United States plans to assault Iraq.

He condemned the US expansionist policies and bullying tactics toward the Middle East region and said the US rhetoric revealed the US tyrannical nature and bullying tactics.

The enemies have targeted Islam as their schemes in the Occupied Lands of Palestine have failed, he noted.

Iran and the United States severed diplomatic relations after the 1979 Islamic revolution, when students following the line of Imam Khomeini seized the US embassy here and held its staff hostage.

US President George W. Bush had in his State of the Union address termed Iran, Iraq and North Korea as "axis of evil" and accused them of attempting to develop weapons of mass destruction.