In the lead-up to next week's UN General Assembly in which he was scheduled to speak, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad allowed NBC's Ann Curry to shadow him in Iran for a feature entitled, "A Day in the Life of Iran's President."

Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says the appointment of special envoys by the president helps advance the Foreign Ministry's objectives.“The Foreign Ministry is completely aware about the dispatch of special presidential envoys… and there is no problem regarding this matter,” Salehi said on Saturday.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has never been happy about the status of the Iranian presidency — neither during his own tenure, from 1981-1989, nor during the terms of his three successors.

Fars News Agency Managing-Director Hamid Reza Moqaddamfar on Sunday reiterated that the recent visit to Lebanon by President Ahmadinejad has yielded positive results for Iran, Lebanon and the region.

Mr. Ahmadinejad's motorcade was showered with rice and flowers on its way from the airport to the presidential palace. But many people are alarmed at the visit, as Iran backs the Hezbollah group, an avowed enemy of Israel. In a move likely to outrage critics, Mr Ahmadinejad is set to tour villages on Lebanon's tense border with Israel.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent a letter to the pope thanking him for opposing a Florida pastor's threat to burn the Quran and calling for cooperation against secularism, the Vatican and the Iranian presidency said Saturday.

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has written to the Pope, thanking him for condemning an American pastor's threat to burn the Koran last month. In his letter, Mr Ahmadinejad also called for closer co-operation between Iran and the Vatican.