Iran dondoles Japan over quake disaster

In a message to his Japanese counterpart Takeaki Matsumoto, Salehi expressed his deep sorrow over the 8.9-magnitude earthquake that rocked Japan on Friday and triggered a devastating tsunami, Iran's Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

The Iranian minister pointed to the Japanese nation's record of hard work and perseverance and expressed hope that the people will overcome the aftermath of the natural disasters and get through their difficult conditions.

Salehi offered his sympathies to the families of the victims of the Friday quake and heavy floods and said Tehran is ready to aid the disaster-hit country in any possible way.

Earlier on Friday, Head of Iran's Red Crescent Society Abolhassan Faqih said the body was ready to supply the victims of the earthquake in northeastern Japan with medicine, hygienic products and food supplies.

The quake unleashed a seven-meter (23-foot) tsunami and was followed by more than 50 aftershocks, measuring more than 6.0 on the Richter scale, for hours.

Later on Friday, police said that hundreds of bodies were found in the tsunami-hit coastal city of Sendai in the Miyagi Prefecture, closest to the quake's epicenter.

The death toll is likely to surpass 1,000 given the scale of the calamity.