The managing directors of three Iranian pro-refom newspapers were summoned to appear before the Press Court today -- apparently because they had published remarks by the dissident cleric Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.

There has been no official statement and it is not known whether the court is to take action against the newspapers Fath, Asr Azadegan and Sobhe Emrouz.

In the past newspapers have been closed and editors jailed or fined.

The three papers published exerpts on Saturday of an interview given jointly to Reuters news agency and the Guardian newspaper of Britain, in which Ayatollah Montazeri criticised religious interference in the electoral process and said the powers of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should be limited.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service