Armenia, Iran differ over Ahmadinejad schedule

By Hasmik Mkrtchian

YEREVAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed to show up for two scheduled events during a visit to Armenia and returned home on Tuesday, but he denied Armenian reports that he had cut short his trip.

"The presidents agreed last night that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad needed to cut short his visit," the chief spokesman for Armenian President Robert Kocharyan told reporters.

"Ahmadenijad had urgent reasons to end his visit ahead of time," he added.

On his return to Tehran, Iran's official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying he had stayed in Armenia longer than scheduled.

"My trip to Armenia was longer than initially planned. This visit was supposed to last 22 hours, but it lasted 90 minutes longer than planned," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as telling reporters.

Earlier, the news agency quoted Ahmadinejad's top adviser, Mojtaba Samareh-Hashemi, denying any change in plan. "The visit by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the Iranian delegation to Armenia is going ahead as scheduled," he said.

Ahmadinejad had been due to visit the memorial of victims of what Armenia describes as the genocide of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915 and address the national parliament.

He was also due to meet members of the Iranian community in Yerevan and visit a mosque.

But Kocharyan's office insisted the visit had been cut short.

"Ahmadinejad failed to appear today at either venue he was expected to visit," a presidential spokeswoman said.

Russia's Itar-Tass news agency quoted Armenian government officials as saying the reason for Ahmadinejad's early departure were "unexpected developments in Iran and urgent meetings he has to hold at home". Tass did not elaborate.

Iran's chief negotiator Ali Larijani resigned on Saturday before crucial talks in Rome due on Tuesday with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Tehran's atomic program.

The West suspects Iran of working on its own atomic bomb and wants it to halt the nuclear program. Tehran says its nuclear program is peaceful and vows to go ahead with it.

(Additional reporting by Parisa Hafezi in Tehran)