Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's reformist allies...

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami's reformist allies said they could push for a rare referendum if two bills challenging the hardliners' grip on power were vetoed by conservatives. Khatami, for the first time in his two-term presidency, was heading for a confrontation with his conservative rivals after submitting two bills to parliament that would strengthen his hand in passing through his reform agenda. "If the bills are not approved by conservative establishments, one of the choices could be a referendum," the Aftab-e Yazd daily quoted Mohsen Mirdamadi, head of parliament's Foreign Affairs and National Security Commission as saying. The passage of the bills through parliament came as thousands of pro-reform students had been staging almost daily protests against a dissident's death sentence, further heightening political tension in the Islamic Republic. One parliamentarian said reformists were able to call the people out onto the streets, if necessary. The issue over popular backing goes to the heart of the row between Iran's factions - whether Islam or the republic, religion or democracy, was supreme in the Islamic Republic.