The Iranian Telecommunications Ministry has reported a rapid growth in telephone use since President Mohammad Khatami took office.

The deputy telecommunications minister, Nasrollah Jahangard, said an average of ten villages a day had been connected to the network over the past three-and-a-half years -- almost doubling the number of communities on the system to nearly twenty-seven-thousand.

He said Iranians could expect an ever-increasing development trend in telecommunications technology.

Mr Jahangard was speaking at a ceremony -- attended by President Khatami -- to launch a further expansion programme which, he said, would see another thirty-six-thousand communities joining the network by the end of 2004.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service