Tehran - Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami has called on all opposition groups to unite in order to replace President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the upcoming elections, the ISNA news agency reported Thursday.

"The society has reached a juncture in which all [political groups] should try to change the political status quo," Khatami told a group of reformists in Tehran.

Tehran - Iranian former president Mohammad Khatami quit the presidential race on Monday night to support former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi in the June 12 election.

The two candidates had similar platforms, and observers believed they could split the moderate vote to the advantage of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose ultra-conservative faction has named him as its sole candidate.

In a statement carried by his website, Yaari News, Khatami said he withdrew his candidacy "as a moral obligation for avoiding a split in the votes."

Tehran  - Iranian former president Mohammad Khatami quit the presidential race on Monday night to support former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi in the June 12 election.

The two candidates had similar platforms, and observers believed they could split the moderate vote to the advantage of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose ultra-conservative faction has named him as its sole candidate.

In a statement carried by his website Yaari News, Khatami said he withdrew his candidacy "as a moral obligation for avoiding a split in the votes."

Tehran

Tehran  - Presidential candidate  might quit in favour of former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi in Iran's presidential race on June 12, ILNA news agency reported Sunday.

Khatami, Iran's former president, would meet Moussavi later Sunday and it was expected that one of them might quit the race against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the report said.

The news agencies Fars and Mehr reported Sunday that Khatami had

already quit the race.

ILNA also reported that Khatami himself did not want to compete against his close aide Moussavi but the reformist factions wanted the moderate cleric to stay.

Tehran  - An Iranian reformist justified and defended Mohammad Khatami, the reformists' top candidate for June's presidential election, for having shaken hands with a European woman during one of his trips abroad, the Fars news agency said Thursday.

Shaking hands with women in public is forbidden in Iran, especially for officials because, according to Islamic regulations, men are not allowed to touch strange women.