A new report has revealed that the Obama administration has drafted a letter to Iran in a bid to pave the way for face-to-face talks.

The letter prepared by the US State Department is aimed at answering Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's congratulatory letter to Obama, the Guardian reported on Thursday.

In an unprecedented move, President Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to Barack Obama in November and congratulated him on his victory in the 2008 US presidential election.

"The great Iranian nation welcomes fundamental, fair and real changes in Washington's policies and behavior particularly in the Middle East," reads the letter.

Obama's letter would be a symbolic gesture to mark a change in tone from the hostile one adopted by the Bush administration, the British daily quoted unnamed diplomats as saying.

Addressed to the people of Iran, the letter will be either delivered to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Seyyed Ali Khamenei, or released as an open letter.

According to the Guardian, the letter will call on Iranians to compare their "low standard of living" with that of some of their more prosperous neighbors, and will urge Iran to "contemplate the benefits of losing its pariah status in the west".

The letter will also call on Iran to stop what the US calls state sponsorship of terrorism.

While Obama's decision to send a letter to Iran is viewed as an attempt to distance the new administration from the hostile rhetoric of the Bush White House, the content of the letter is believed to echo the former US president's stance toward Tehran.

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