Tehran, Jan. 31 (Reuters): Iran’s reformist government today repeated a formal request for parliamentary elections to be postponed, arguing the mass disqualification of reformist candidates put the legitimacy of the February 20 vote in doubt.

“I again propose the election’s postponement be put on the Guardian Council’s agenda,” interior minister Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari said in a letter to the Guardian Council, a ministry spokesman said.

The 12-man council Ä a hardline unelected watchdog with sweeping powers Ä sparked Iran's worst political crisis in recent years by barring hundreds of reformist allies of President Mohammad Khatami from standing in the election.

Yesterday it also rejected an identical request for postponement of the polls from Mousavi-Lari whose ministry is responsible for organising the vote.

With elected reformists and appointed hardliners apparently further than ever from compromise over the February 20 poll, Khatami met reformist MPs and some ministers who reiterated their desire to resign, sources said. The President, who has always avoided confrontation with hardliners since he came to office in 1997, urged his allies to put their resignations on hold, the reformist sources said.

Khatami hopes talks will solve the row so the polls are held on time.

“This government will hold only free and competitive elections,” the official Irna news agency quoted him as saying.

But his optimism appeared at odds with most of his allies. Reformist MPs said they would announce mass resignations in coming days and may boycott the election altogether.