Outgoing Iranian President Mohammad Khatami defended the performance of his cabinet, saying successes outnumbered failures, the official IRNA news agency reported Monday.

"Successful performances of the government in different political, economic, social and cultural areas outnumbered the cases in which it may have failed to accomplish the goals," Khatami was quoted as saying in a live interview with state television.

The president said that his government always exercised determination to run the country according to "religious democratic principles" and the Iranian nation would ultimately evaluate his performance as president.

Khatami, who won two presidential elections in 1997 and 2001 by flying high the flag of "reform", is to step down in early August and succeeded by hardline President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who swept to power by a landslide victory in a runoff election on June 24.

Khatami has been criticized for failing to carry out the promised reform measures and doing little to improve Iran's stagnant economy.

Source: Xinhua