TEHRAN Iranian President Mohammad Khatami on Sunday sent his best wishes to the heads of Christian states for the New Year which will start Monday.

Khatami said he hoped that "a stable peace, tranquility and justice reign in the world," and that the mankind would start the new millennium with an understanding and dialogue and negation of force and discrimination.

There are around 300,000 Christians in the Islamic Republic, the majority of them Armenians.

On December 24 also, Khatami sent wishes to Pope John Paul II for Christmas and the New Year.

(IRNA)