A prominent Iranian poet, Hamid Mossadeq, has died of a heart attack in the capital, Tehran.

He was fifty-nine and had been in hospital for the last two weeks.

He was credited with writing some of the most progressive poems in contemporary Iran, and was popular with youth and intellectuals.

Mr Mossadeq was also a lawyer by profession, and in the last few years represented many dissident writers and journalists in the Iranian courts.