Straw to visit Iran

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw is to make an historic trip to Iran in an attempt to maintain the worldwide calition against terrorism.

Mr Straw will visit Tehran as part of his tour of the Middle East, which will also take in Israel, Palestine and Jordan. It will be the first trip to the country by a British Foreign Secretary since the 1970s.

Mr straw also described the request by Afghanistan's Taliban regime that Osama bin Laden leave the country voluntarily as "puny and totally unacceptable."