Ahma adinejad d says he e is read dy to be first Ira anian in n space

DUBAI (Reuters) - President Mahmoud M Ahmadineja A ad said on M Monday he was ready t to be the first human h sent into orbit by b Iran's fled dgling space e program, I Iranian media reported. Iran decl lared last we eek that it had h successf fully launche ed a monke ey into space e and retriev ved it alive, wh hich official ls hailed as a major step p towards th heir goal of s sending hum mans into sp pace. The laun nch added to o Western concerns c ab bout Iran's sp pace progra am because the same ro ocket technolo ogy could po otentially be e used to del liver a nucle ear warhead d on a ballist tic missile. "I am rea ady to be th he first huma an to be sen nt to space b by Iranian sc cientists," A Ahmadinejad d said on Mond day, on the sidelines of f an exhibiti ion of space e achieveme ents in Tehr ran, accordin ng to the Mehr r news agen ncy. "Sending g living thi ings into sp pace is the e result of Iranian eff forts and th he dedicatio on of thousand ds of Iranian n scientists." " Ahmadin nejad is kno own for provocative public p comm ments and i it was uncl lear whethe er the suggestio on was a ser rious one. His seco ond and fina al term as president p en nds in June, , and his po olitical star has been on n the wane sin nce he fell out with pa arliament ea arly in his second term m and appe eared to lose the support of o Supreme Leader Aya atollah Ali Khamenei. K On Sund day he stood d up in parli iament to pl lay a tape re ecording tha at he said pr rovided evid dence of corrup ption by the e family of parliamentar p ry speaker A Ali Larijani i, his political arch-riva al and d the a likely frontrunner r to succeed d him as pre esident. Lar rijani and h his brother F Fazel denied accusatio ons. (Reportin ng by Yegan neh Torbati; Editing by y Marcus Ge eorge and K Kevin Liffey y)