FOREIGN Secretary Jack Straw is to make a ground-breaking trip to Iran in the wake of the terrorist atrocities in America.

Mr Straw said he was keen to bring the Middle Eastern country in line with the growing international coalition forming against world terrorism.

The Blackburn MP was speaking at the Foreign Office in London today before jetting off to Brussels for meetings with European counterparts.

He said that though he had planned a trip to Tehran, the capital of Iran, well before last week's events, it would now be brought forward.

He said: "Relations between Britain and Iran have improved in recent years and I had arranged to visit Tehran later in the year well before the atrocities, but as a result of a conversation between the Prime Minister and the President of Iran I have brought that visit forward. We ahve a great deal to discuss which is testament to the desire on both sides to see relations between the two countries improve even more."

The visit, thought to be the first by a British Foreign Secretary since the overthrow of the Shah in the 1970s, will form part of a diplomatic mission to the region to bolster support for international action against those responsible for the US terror attacks.

News of the visit came a day after Prime Minister Tony Blair spoke by telephone to the Iranian president Mohammed Khatami, their first ever conversation.

The Tehran government has condemned last week's attacks and called for an international war on terrorism, although it said yesterday it would not allow the United States to use its airspace to attack Afghanistan.

However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi also said Iran would not allow chief terror suspect Osama bin Laden to enter Iran.

Mr Straw will visit the Middle East next week.