TEHRAN -- Iran's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance deems itself duty bound to render every kind of facilities to foreign media correspondents and support them in carrying out their professional duties, a ministry official said here Friday.

The ministry's director general for foreign media and press, Mohammad Hossein Khoshvaqt, in an interview with IRNA stressed that foreign media and press correspondents should be provided with every kind of aid and support to enable them to have a first hand observation about the real issues relating to the Islamic system and the nation so that they can correctly reflect them worldwide.

He stressed, however, that obviously in Iran, like all other countries, there are certain professional practice standards for representatives of the foreign media.

Expressing profound sorrow over the passing away of the Iranian photojournalist, Zahra Kazemi, he hoped that such bitter incident would never recur to journalists. On the discrepancy between statements made by him and the coroner's office about the cause of her death, Khoshvaqt explained that "Last Saturday in contact with Tehran's Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor about the cause of her death, I was told that she had died of a brain stroke. I announced this in my last Saturday interview quoting 'a judiciary official' by whom I meant the Tehran prosecutor."

He said after hearing Kazemi's death, his ministry decided to look into the matter. He further said the minister of culture and Islamic guidance, while sympathizing with the family of the deceased photojournalist in his condolence message, said it was his duty to probe into the case and also requested the Iranian president to order an investigation about the issue.

Khoshvaqt added that President Khatami set up a special committee comprising of ministers of Culture and Islamic Guidance, Information, Interior Affairs and Justice to probe into the matter. The committee is to submit its final report to the president late this week, he said.