VIENNA -- Iranian Majlis Speaker Mahdi Karrubi, heading a political and parliamentary delegation, arrived here on Sunday.

He was met at Vienna's airport by the President of the Austrian National Council, Heinz Fischer, the Head of the Iran-Austria Friendship Group, Herbert Graft, Iranian Ambassador to Vienna Ebrahim Rahimpour, Iran's Envoy to the United Nations (UN) Pirouz Hosseini and a number of heads of Iranian organizations and centers in Vienna, IRNA reported.

During his three-day stay in the Austrian capital, the Iranian official is scheduled to meet with Austrian Federal President Thomas Klestil, Federal Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, the representative of the Social-Democrat Party to the European Parliament and the heads of the Iran-Austria Friendship Group and the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Austrian National Assembly.

Karrubi on Sunday left Helsinki for the Austrian capital of Vienna. He was seen off at the airport by his Finnish counterpart and the Finnish president.

Karrubi, accompanied by a five-man delegation, is visiting Austria at an invitation of his Austrian counterpart.

Last year, the Chairman of the Austrian National Council, Dr.

Heinz Fischer, visited Tehran. The trip was seen as indicating the importance of Austria's top officials' commitment on expansion of parliamentary cooperation with Iran.

Austria, with an area of 83,000 square kilometers, borders the Czech Republic, Germany, Italy, Slovenia, Hungary, Slovakia, Switzerland and Liechtenstein and has a population of around 8 million, 9 percent of which are aliens.

Its Legislature is divided into two houses -- the National Council and the Federal Council.

Karrubi arrived in the Finnish capital of Helsinki on Wednesday (June 12) at the head of a high-level political and parliamentary delegation on the first leg of a three-nation European tour. From Austria, he will then travel on to Belarus.