The culture minister, an appointee of the country's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has refused to renew the publication permit for the book.

With the election in June of an ideologically hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran had abandoned any conciliatory approach to the West, moving forward with its nuclear program.

But the peace effort has been complicated by the rancor between the country's prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, and its hard-line president, Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga.

It makes them all feel so good to help a poor struggling country like ours, especially after the unfortunate death of our hard-line president and his replacement by the more democratic-minded prime minister.

Iran's hard-liners are hugely unpopular and the regime is wobbly, but Bush administration policies have inflamed Iranian nationalism and given cover to the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Serbia's hard-line president, Slobodan Milosevic insisted that the agreement for the first time brought international recognition to the Serbian minority in Croatia.

In place of the personal put-downs favored by Lal Krishna Advani, the party's hard-line president, Mr. Vajpayee gently questioned Mrs. Gandhi's ability to perform miracles.

Iranians went to the polls Friday in large numbers, which analysts said could be good news for reformers and could work against the hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

That has caused real economic pain and has added to the unpopularity of Iran's hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

New Leader Closes Doors Even that qualified cooperation ebbed last year after the talks with Europe collapsed and Iran got a new, hard-line president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.