The meeting was ignored by most of Iranian media except the independent Students News Agency ISNA that mentioned it in few lines, without saying when and where the meeting took place or what had been debated.

However, sources close to Mrs. Ebadi, a veteran human rights activist told Iran Press Service that Mr. Ligabo and some other members of the delegation met Mrs. Ebadi in her office.

A Canadian-Iranian photojournalist, Ms. Kazemi died last July in a Tehran military hospital after interrogators hit her head with a heavy object, leading to brain haemorrhage.

"Both sides expressed satisfaction at the discussions", the source said, adding that Mrs. Ebadi briefed the United Nations legists on her activites, including the defence of some political prisoners.

Mrs. Ebadi had experienced Iranian prisons in 2002 when she had been detained for two weeks on charges of anti-regime activities.

Though the authorities claims the Islamic Republic has no political prisoners, but several leading scholars, journalists, intellectuals and lawyers as well as one cleric are in jail on the accusation of propaganda against the Islamic Republic or insulting its clerical leaders.

Earlier, Mr. Ligabo had met with Judge Sa’id Mortazavi, the notorious Tehran and Islamic Revolutionary Courts, discussing the legal proceedings in the Islamic Republic, the official news agency IRNA reported.

"During the two-hour meeting, Mortazavi commented on the functions and performance of Iran's judicial apparatus and the proceedings of the press offences.

A former Head of the press court, Mr. Mortazavi shut down more than a hundred publications and sent behind bars a dozen of influential Iranian journalists, acting on orders from Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, who, as the leader of the Islamic Republic, controls directly the Judiciary, a power he uses as the conservatives police and political arms against dissidents.

But according to Mr. Mortazavi, while in West the government put economic and psychological pressures on the periodicals and press circles, the press offences are being dealt in full transparency and fairness in Iran's Islamic system.

Earlier in the day Ligabo held talks with Iran's Head of Article 90 Committee of the Majles Hojjatoleslam Hoseyn Ansari-Rad on the need to respect human rights.

Ansari-Rad said the Islamic and Quranic teachings recommend respect for human rights and freedom of expression. He appreciated the efforts being made by the United Nations to promote such concepts.

IRNA quoted Ligabo as having said that he was satisfied with his negotiations with Iranian officials in Tehran adding that the UN Human Rights Commission has not made substantial allegation against the Islamic Republic's human rights record.

In a statement distributed to foreign press, families of political prisoners told Mr. Ligabo to ask their Iranian counterparts how come that international jurists are allowed to visit Iranian political prisoners but not the relatives or even their lawyers, as seen in the case of several leading prisoners like students leaders Manootchehr and Akbar Mohammadi, lawyer Naser Zarafshan or journalists Taqi Rahmani, Reza Alijani, Hoda Saber or Akbar Ganji, to name some.