Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami on Friday called for a 'new paradigm' in world affairs based on mutual respect, in an address to British Muslims in London.
The Shia cleric, who led the Islamic Republic between 1997 and 2005, said the world had paid a "heavy price" over the last century to reach awareness of the need for greater dialogue between east and west.
The use of force, double standards in the international arena and the desire for one society to try to dominate others needed to be replaced, he told a mainly Muslim audience of more than 100 people at the London Muslim Centre.
"The spirit of dialogue amongst civilisations is the new paradigm to replace the old one, to create better understanding. Instead of hatred, we would have mutual respect, justice for all instead of injustice.
"And the most important thing that we have lost ... is security. Security should be for everyone ... I think if we were paving this way, we would satisfy Allah, we would save human beings from threat and peril.
"And we would create a better world for generations."
Khatami is the highest-ranking Iranian politician to come to Britain since the 1979 Islamic Revolution and has espoused a moderate view on world affairs here, although his four-day visit has angered Iranian pro-democracy and human rights groups.
He declined to say whether he could exert influence over his successor, the current President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has called for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and is suspected of developing nuclear weapons.
During a chaotic 10-minute walkabout to meet the audience after his address, he was asked by AFP to what extent the moderate views he called for were shared by Ahmadinejad.
"You must ask Mr Ahmadinejad," he replied in English.
Khatami's speech -- delivered in Persian with an English translation -- touched on a number of themes he aired during a keynote address to the influential Chatham House foreign affairs think-tank in London on Wednesday.
They included the need for mutual respect, tolerance and peaceful co-existence between nations, cultures and religions as well as the need for Muslim integration, particularly in non-Muslim societies in Britain and Europe.
He revisited the issue developed during a BBC radio interview broadcast on Thursday about the right of Muslim women to wear traditional dress, including the hijab headscarf or the full-face niqab veil.
The niqab has been the subject of a fierce debate here since last month when former British foreign secretary Jack Straw said he asked women to remove that type of veil when they spoke to him in his constituency to better aid communication.
The event was organised by the moderate Muslim Council of Britain umbrella group of organisations, whose general secretary Muhammad Abdul Bari said he hoped it would be a "catalyst" for better dialogue and understanding between peoples.
Khatami was to give a behind-closed-doors address to postgraduate students and academics from the respected Middle East studies centre at Saint Antony's College, Oxford University, later on Friday.