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TEHRAN — Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday ordered the immediate cancellation of plans to segregate sexes at some universities, blasting the move as "shallow and unwise," his website reported.

"In some universities, single-gender courses and classes are implemented without considering their consequences," the president said in a letter to the ministers of higher education and health published by his website.

"It is necessary that these shallow and unwise actions are prevented immediately," Ahmadinejad said against the backdrop of a lively debate in media and among officials over reports of plans to divide female and male students.

The order comes amid a campaign by the ultra-conservative and religious camps dominating the Iranian regime for the abolition of co-education in universities for the new academic year.

On Tuesday, higher education minister Kamran Daneshjoo denied having any plans for gender segregation at universities.

"Men and women must sit in separate rows in university," he said, while insisting his ministry was pressing ahead with plans for the "Islamisation" of the education system.

"We do not want to create a wall (but) we are against the mingling of men and women based on Western styles," Daneshjoo said, adding students would not be prevented from "cooperation when it comes... >>>