But the group is also on the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations, placed there in 1997 as a goodwill gesture toward Iran's newly elected reform-minded president, Mohammad Khatami.

After Mr. Yeltsin's uneven leadership, Russia could use a steady, reform-minded president who knows how to run an efficient government.

Mr. Abtahi, who served under Muhammad Khatami, a reform-minded president, wrote, "But it will be more in Iran's interest than Britain's if this crisis is over by diplomatic means as soon as possible."

The stinging electoral defeat inflicted on Croatia's ruling party this week is encouraging news for the entire Balkan region, especially if it is followed by the election of a reform-minded president in separate votes later this month.

Rejected candidates included a brother of the reform-minded president, Mohammad Khatami.

Last week, he made clear that he is committed to irreversible change but is equally determined not to let it sweep away his constituency, as happened to another reform-minded president, Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

What he heard from the White House was an unidentified (but almost certainly authorized) adviser derisively critical of Boris Yeltsin, the newly elected, reform-minded president of the Russian republic.

Kim Young Sam, South Korea's reform-minded president, put his armed forces and police on alert after Kim Il Sung's death was announced, but he also instructed his troops to avoid provocations.

On one side is a minority coalition led by the Liberal group, which supports a relatively simple financial package that the Parliament's reform-minded president, Pat Cox of Ireland, says will be acceptable to Europe's leaders.

The battle has simmered, with occasional eruptions, over the three years since the reform-minded president was swept to power on the votes of a youthful electorate that has come of age since the Islamic revolution of 1979.