Tehran - Former Iranian prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi said Tuesday he was prepared to run in the June 12 presidential election, ISNA news agency reported.

Moussavi is a moderate technocrat opposing the policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and considered close to the two other candidates, Mohammad Khatami and Mehdi Karroubi.

Moussavi, born in 1941 in Khameneh, north-western Iran, was prime minister from 1981 and 1989, during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988).

Tehran - Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to attend the 10th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and discuss plans for a gas pipeline linking the two countries with India.

Zardari and his Iranian and Afghan counterparts Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Hamid Karzai are scheduled to have a trilateral meeting prior to the summit on Wednesday on security in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Tehran - Afghan President Hamid Karzai arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to attend the 10th Summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and discuss regional political and economic issues.

Iran, Pakistan and Turkey founded the ECO in 1985. Later Azerbaijan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan joined the group.

Karzai is expected to discuss possible Iran-US cooperation in Afghanistan with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad prior to the summit on Wednesday.

Tehran - Turkish President Abdullah Gul arrived in Tehran on Tuesday to attend the 10th summit of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

But the visit is overshadowed by press reports in both Turkey and Iran that Gul will deliver a message from US President Barack Obama to his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The ECO summit will be held on Wednesday, but Gul and Ahmadinejad were scheduled to meet later Tuesday at the presidential office.

Vienna  - International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei called Monday for Arab countries to help resolve the Iranian nuclear spat, which seems more achievable under the new United States administration.

"The neighbours so far have been sitting on the fence," he said during a speech in the Austrian Parliament in Vienna, hosted by the Austrian Society for Foreign Policy and International Relations.

Sana'a, Yemen - A Yemeni state security court on Monday adjourned the trial of three of Yemeni men charged with spying for Iran, the defendants' lawyer said.

"The court postponed the ruling session until March 23," Shadha Nasser told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. She said the court, which had been expected to deliver a verdict, gave no reasons for the delay.

The defendants, aged between 31 and 57 years old, faced charges of "illegal contact with a foreign state, and the transmission of military information to it."