KHATAMI HOPEFUL OF SETTLEMENT

TEHRAN, Jan 3: President Mohammad Khatami of Iran expressed hope on Saturday that war-torn Afghanistan could settle its problems through political means, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

"As chairman of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), Iran will make all-out efforts to solve the crisis in Afghanistan," he told ousted Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani.

Khatami, who underscored Iran's support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Afghanistan, said Tehran was ready to dispatch food and other humanitarian aid to the Afghan people.

Rabbani is in Tehran to brief the Iranian leadership on the outcome of his recent visit to Pakistan.

He said Taliban, who control two-thirds of the country, was "too small to decide the fate of the great nation of Afghanistan".

During last month's Islamic summit in Tehran, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had invited the ousted president to Islamabad to discuss the possibility of talks between the warring sides.-dpa