ROME AP Iran's foreign minister on Tuesday said the United States wasn't ready for relations with Tehran based on ``reciprocal respect.'' Kamal Kharrazi Tehran's top diplomat gave his assessment while talking to reporters at a forum in the northern Italian city of Turin on Iranian-Italian relations. The United States has had no diplomatic relations with Iran since 1980 a year after Muslim fundamentalists overthrew the pro-American Shah and overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran holding Americans hostage for more than a year. The U.S. State Department considers Iran a sponsor of terrorism but the Clinton administration is trying to capitalize on what it sees as a strain of moderation in Tehran. ``We don't accept relations which are aimed at eliminating our freedom and independence. We are for equal relations and we think that the United States isn't ready for this type of relations'' the Italian news agency AGI quoted the Iranian minister as saying. The ANSA news agency quoted Kharrazi as saying Tehran wanted relations ``based on reciprocal respect.'' Iran for now ``doesn't need relations with the United States'' ANSA quoted him as saying. On other international issues the minister slamming Israel said that any lasting peace in the Middle East must take into consideration ``all the rights of the Palestinians'' ANSA said. And the Iranian also lashed out at Turkey as Italy debates what to do about a detained Turkish Kurdish rebel leader whom Ankara has accused of terrorism and wants extradited. ``If peoples see their rights always respected there would never be any problems with them'' Kharrazi was quoted as saying. fd APW19981201.1002.txt.body.html APW19981201.1152.txt.body.html