Ms. Kazemi, 54, died in a Tehran hospital on Friday night, after, according to Iranian officials, she suffered headache while under interrogation at the Intelligence Ministry.

The Canadian government, in a statement, said there are indications that the Iranian-born Canadian photographer presented multiple bruises and brain injury.

Ms. Kazemi had been arrested on 23 June while taking pictures near the Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, an official from the Islamic Guidance Ministry told the official news agency IRNA, adding that after she presented prison guards with Iranian identity documents, "she had been treated as an Iranian citizen".

The Iranian clerical-ruled officials said although Ms. Kazemi, who was covering Iranian situation for a Canadian publication and the London-based "Camera Press" photo agency had been issued press pass, but she was not authorized to cover the demonstrations.

During the two weeks of students-led anti regime protests in June and early July, the authorities arrested at least 4.000 demonstrators, most of them taken in Evin prison.

"You should determine the reasons for her sudden death and who is responsible for it", President Khatami said in his directive in reaction to a statement from Ms. Kazemi’s family that she may have died of physical torture.

President Khatami urged the four cabinet ministers to see whether there is a matter of culpability in the case, which led to the sudden death and report the outcome of their inquiry soon.

But analysts doubted the investigations would provide more information than that has been already offered by the authorities, that she had been arrested by prison guards while taking pictures in a high security zone and that she died in hospital from acute headache.

The Canadian government and Mr. Stephen Hachemi, Ms. Kazemi’s son, insisted that her body to be returned to Canada for an autopsy, but not only the Iranian authorities refused the demand, they even did not allow a team of Canadian doctors to travel to Tehran and proceed to autopsy the victim’s body.

"I want to insist on the return of Zahra's body to Canada. That is all that is important at this point", the young Hachemi Hashemi told journalists at a press conference in Montreal.

"We will help the family which has asked for the repatriation of the remains", the Canadian Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Reynald Doiron told the French news agency AFP. "The Canadian ambassador in Tehran has been instructed to meet with the Iranian foreign minister as soon as possible", he added.

A group of Iranian immigrants here, representing the Center for Thought, Dialogue and Human Rights in Iran, had written to Canada's minister of Foreign Affairs, Bill Graham, to demand, "the immediate return to Canada" of Kazemi's body.

"Due to the bad record of the Iranian regime on human rights abuses and in order for them to try to prevent the truth being found regarding the suspicious death of Ms. Kamezi, it is necessary that her body be flown back to Canada for an autopsy", the group said in its letter.

The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders expressed its "shock" at Kazemi's death and held the Iranian authorities responsible for her death after what it described as her "arbitrary arrest and lack of suitable medical attention".

The Association of Iranian Journalists Abroad (AIJA), in a fax to the leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, protested vigorously on Saturday to the death of Ms. Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-born Canadian photo-journalist.

In another statement issued on Sunday and addressed to President Khatami, the Rome-based AIJA urged him to explain the circumstances of Ms. Kazemi’s arrest, who arrested her and on what charges?

"Did the journalist receive proper legal protection? Had she access to lawyer? Was she able to talk to her family? Was the family allowed to get medical assistance from their own doctors?", the Association asked the lamed President.

In its statement, AIJA also said it wanted to know why Ms. Kazemi had been transferred to a hospital that belongs to the Revolutionary Guards, not allowing any journalist to visit her and why the authorities refuses autopsy?

"The Association of Iranian Journalists Abroad, extremely concerned by the tragic fate of a respected colleague, not only urges the Iranian authorities to offer full information on the circumstances relating to the death of Ms. Kazemi, but also demands that an international independent team of lawyers and doctors that would include Dr. Karim Lahiji, an Iranian lawyer and deputy president of the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues go to Tehran and investigate the case", AIJA said.