TEHRAN An MP Majid Ansari said that the deputies in the Majlis are to introduce an extremely urgent legislation to the chamber to fill seats left empty last week after seven deputies from northern Golestan Province died in a plane crash.

After reviewing the proposals put forward by provincial officials, an extremely urgent bill will be submitted to the chamber for a premature by-election, Ansari told a function to commemorate a Golestan MP Qorban-Ali Qandehari who died in the plane crash.

Majlis will clear the way for the people of Golestan to hand pick their own MPs once again, he said. Transport Minister Rahman Dadman, seven legislators and 22 other people were killed last Thursday when their civilian plane crashed in bad weather in northern Iran.

The Majlis Speaker Mahdi Karrubi said Tuesday that MPs were working on plans to fill seats in the chamber left empty after the fatal plane crash.

Voters will fill more than a dozen vacant Majlis seats on June 8, in a by-election being held the same day as the presidential polls, but not those left empty in Thursday's crash that killed 30 people.

President Mohammad Khatami has appointed Sadeq Afshar as caretaker minister of transport to replace Dadman.

If Khatami decides to retain him as minister, the appointment will have to be confirmed by a vote of confidence in Majlis.