TEHRAN -- Inter-Parliamentary Union Secretary General Anders B. Johnsson will meet separately with Iran's president, Majlis speaker, and Judiciary chief today.

Johnsson is to confer with Iranian officials on the judicial immunity of MPs in carrying out their duties and also on the human rights issue.

Johnsson will also take part in a press conference today.

MP A'azam Naseripour of Eslamabad-e-Gharb has evaluated Majlis Speaker Mahdi Karrubi's three-nation tour to Yemen, Algeria, and Sudan as positive.

Naseripour, who accompanied Karrubi on the trip, stated that its objectives were cooperation and exchange of views in the Islamic world.

She said that in the talks they held with Islamic countries' officials, they reached the conclusion that the source of the Islamic world's problems is lack of foresight in decision making.

She also said that cooperation among Islamic countries within the framework of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), and the UN could bring them closer together and give more weight to their votes.

Naseripour stated that Algerian President Abdedlaziz Bouteflika told her that President Khatami's speech at the UN impressed him so much that he reconsidered his vote on the violation of human rights in Iran and voted no. She noted that the Algerian no vote was determining and resulted in Iran not being placed on the UN list of human rights violators.

The bill on achieving balance in the government workforce, reducing the number of permanent and temporary foreign missions, and decreasing government expenditures on foreign missions was signed by 52 MPs and forwarded to the Majlis Presiding Board yesterday. According to the bill, the government is obliged to take appropriate measures to reduce its total workforce and reduce expenditures on consulates and representatives abroad by up to 30 percent by March 2004.