Iran's President Urges Higher Birth Rate

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, smiles as he arrives at his office for an official meeting in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, Oct. 22, 2006. An Iranian Foreign Ministry official warned Sunday that Tehran would not remain passive if the West imposes sanctions over Iran's disputed nuclear program, but did not say how it would respond. (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian) (Hasan Sarbakhshian - AP)

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's president is urging couples to have more children to boost the country's population, state media said.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his administration would reduce the working hours of women to allow them to have more children.

"It is said that two children is enough. I oppose this," he told legislators Sunday, according to the Isna news agency. "Our country has a lot of capacities. It even has the capacity for 120 million people."

Ahmadinejad also said the West fears a high Iranian birthrate because other countries believe Iran "would eventually dominate them."

Iran has a population of about 70 million, more than double its neighbor to the west, Iraq. Both countries are majority Shiite Muslim. There is no evidence so far that the new policy for women has been enacted.

In the 1980s, reformist President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani persuaded prominent clerics to support his family planning program, reducing the country's birthrate to 1.7 children per couple from 3.2.

However, many hard-line clerics oppose family planning as anti-Islamic.

Iran is facing intense pressure from the U.S. and its allies over its nuclear program, which the West fears is aimed toward developing nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.