TEHRAN -- World Health Organization's (WHO) Director for East Mediterranean region Hossein Abdol-Razagh Jazayeri here on Tuesday called on President Mohammad Khatami.

At the meeting, Khatami said that Iran is ready to share its experience in health training and treatment with other countries.

He hoped that with the alleviation of poverty, disease and ignorance, which are the source of many problems, the world would progress toward equity and justice.

Khatami alluded to the need for who to focus on medical treatment while paying attention to mental health.

He also said that the identity crisis stemming from globalization is an important ailment.

He further called for global attention to the problems faced by the people of Afghanistan and Palestine.

The WHO official referred to Iran's progress in providing physical and mental health care and welcomed the transfer of Iran's know-how in the field of health care to other countries.

Meanwhile, Iran has managed to bring leprosy under control and has reduced the spread of the disease to 0.04 per 10,000 individuals, Health Minister Masoud Pezeshkian said here earlier in August.

Speaking at the annual gatherings of the officials in charge of eradicating leprosy in East Mediterranean region Tehran "We are on the verge of eradicating the disease nationwide," said Pezeshkian in his message, IRNA reported.

Representatives from Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Yemen, Egypt, Sudan and Somalia attended the gathering.

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report in 2001, all countries in the east of the Mediterranean successfully eradicated the disease.