Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that he was not interested in meeting his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy.

"One of the European heads of states who tries to show off as world power and talk like Pharaohs recently said that he would not talk to and shake hands with someone who said that the Zionist regime (Israel) should be eliminated," Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Ahvaz, south-western Iran.

He was referring to Sarkozy's remarks that he would neither offer his hand to or share a table with him because of Ahmadinejad's antipathy toward Israel.

London, December 16 : British-based retailer Debenhams will be opening its first department store in Iran offering lingerie and designer clothes to the country's burka-clad women.

The Muslim nation has often been dubbed as authoritarian by the Western world since many of the country's religious leaders insist women to cover themselves from head-to-toe.

However, it was revealed that men would be prohibited from entering the lingerie department of the three-storey shop on the capital's main commercial road, "the Regent Street of Tehran," reports the Sun.

Tehran, Dec 15: An archaeologist has said that the name "Persian Gulf" has a historical root and has been registered in all historical documents and texts, and so, efforts to alter the name will prove futile.

According to a report by Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), British archaeologist Dr. Lloyd Weeks made the statement at the 10th International Congress on Iran Archaeology in Bandar Abbas, capital of Hormuzgan province.

"World reputed academic circles have also recognized the place as "Persian Gulf" and no other names are credited," Weeks told IRNA.

Tehran, Dec 15: A team of archaeologists has found relics at the Joobji archeological site in Iran, which they say are among the rarest of their kind in the world.

Joobji archeological site is located in the ancient city of Ramhormoz, in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan Province.

According to a report in Press TV, the relics were found in an Elamite tomb, which was discovered during construction work in 2007.

The tomb was mostly ruined and its stone structure was buried in a mound, 230 meters above sea level.

Tehran, Dec 15: An archaeological team has claimed to have found a Neolithic residential area on the Kelar Tepe, a prehistoric mound located in the Kelaradsht region in Iran's northern province of Mazandaran.

"Excavations at the Rashak 3 Cave have uncovered an oven at a depth of 5 meters," team director Hamed Vahdatinasab told the Persian service of CHN on Saturday.

"We have also discovered shards in the oven, which are very similar to Neolithic pottery works," he added.

Vahdatinasab said that Ezzatollah Negahban, the father of modern Iranian archaeology, had excavated the region about 40 years ago.

Paris  - An international conference on Afghanistan began near Paris Sunday without representation from Iran.

According to French media reports, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki decided shortly before the conference's start not to attend. French sources further noted that no representative of Mottaki had shown.

Tensions between Iran and France, which is hosting the conference, have been building in recent weeks after French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he would neither offer his hand to or share a table with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad owing to Ahmadinejad's antipathy toward Israel.

Iran responded to those comments with warnings of "serious consequences for bilateral relations."