Iran's new president prays

TEHRAN - Iran's president elect, moving to win over conservatives defeated in the Islamic republic's election, prayed at the …

TEHRAN - Iran's president elect, moving to win over conservatives defeated in the Islamic republic's election, prayed at the tomb of the revolution's founder yesterday.

The moderate Shia Muslim clergyman, Mr Mohammad Khatami, went to the mausoleum of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, spiritual leader of the Islamist revolution that ousted the Shah in 1979. Accompanied by Khomeini's grandson, Hassan, he renewed allegiance to Khomeini's ideas, Iranian state television said.

Khatami's election by a landslide on Friday was the biggest political upset in Iran since the revolution. Iranian analysts and Western diplomats had forecast a close race but none predicted he would crush the establishment's candidate, parliamentary speaker Mr Ali Akbar NateqNouri.