Iranian publishers have been invited to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany for the first time in ten years.

Iran was banned from the fair after its late spritual leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, issued a death sentence against the British author, Salman Rushdie, for his book, "The Satanic Verses," which many Muslims condemned as blasphemous.

The fair's organisers said they lifted the ban because Iran's new President, Mohammed Khatami, had distanced his government from the sentence.

The fair will pay for two independent Iranian publishing houses to attend the fair and will organise a discussion on the situation facing Iranian writers and publishers.