Montreal — The Iranian government will convene an inquiry into the death of a Montreal photojournalist who died after being arrested in the Middle Eastern country, the Foreign Affairs Department confirmed Sunday.

Four Iranian cabinet ministers will lead the inquiry, said Foreign Affairs spokesman Reynald Doiron. The inquiry was announced in Tehran by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami.

The death of Zahra Kazemi, a 54-year-old photojournalist of Iranian origin, was confirmed Saturday.

Ms. Kazemi, a freelance journalist, was apparently arrested after taking photos outside a prison in Tehran on or about June 23.

Ms. Kazemi was allegedly branded a spy after her arrest and beaten into unconsciousness by police interrogators. One report said she had suffered a brain hemorrhage. On Sunday, the official Iranian news agency reported she "suffered a stroke when she was subject to interrogation and died in hospital."

Ms. Kazemi's son, Stephan Hachemi, said later Sunday he is not satisfied with the Iranian government's efforts.

"There's a lot of playing around," he told a late-afternoon news conference. "Most of the members of the Iranian government are taking that as a joke. They really don't co-operate."

There were conflicting reports on whether Ms. Kazemi had already been buried — a burial Mr. Doiron said had been authorized by Ms. Kazami's mother in Iran.

Mr. Hachemi said that as far as he knows, the body is in a morgue in Tehran and he wants it returned to Canada. He said that if his grandmother had authorized its burial it was because she was pressured.

Mr. Hachemi said he was angry and didn't want the sympathy offered by the Iranian government through its embassy in Ottawa.

"Don't send me your condolences when your government killed my mother, tortured her and still doesn't respond to my demands," Mr. Hachemi said.

The Canadian president of Reporters Without Borders, an international free-press support organization, said she would prefer that an independent group conducted the inquiry.

"Any step in that direction is always seen as a positive thing but for us it really is insufficient," said Tanya Churchmuch, noting there is a question of how thorough an investigation the Iranian government would conduct.

"If we were to have some sort of police corps have a prisoner die while in custody, you wouldn't want to have that same police corps investigating itself."

However, Ms. Churchmuch said the immediate priority is to get Ms. Kazemi's body returned to her family.

The official Islamic Republic News Agency reported that the ministers for culture and Islamic guidance, information, interior and justice will oversee the inquiry.

"You should determine the reasons for her sudden death and who is responsible for it," the IRNA quoted Mr. Khatami as saying. He was also quoted as offering his condolences to Kazemi's family.

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien expressed his sympathy to Ms. Kazemi's family on Sunday after laying a wreath at a war cemetery in Brookwood, England.

"I would like to offer my condolences to the family," said Mr. Chrétien, who is in England for a summit of 14 centre-left national leaders.

Mr. Doiron said Foreign Affairs officials met with representatives of the Iranian government Sunday to discuss the return of Ms. Kazemi's body and the Iranians said that could be possible after a formal request is made by her son through the Iranian embassy in Ottawa.

"We receive this information with great satisfaction and we wait to see what shape the investigation will take in the coming days," Mr. Doiron said of the news of the inquiry.

He said no further information had been learned on the circumstances of Ms, Kazemi's death but said that officials were still trying to arrange a meeting with Iran's foreign minister.

Ms. Kazemi died late Friday in a Tehran hospital after suffering a "brain stroke," Mohammad-Hossein Khoshvaqt, an official in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, said in a statement carried by IRNA.

IRNA quoted Mr. Khoshvaqt as saying Ms. Kazemi had been authorized to cover last month's violent pro-reform protests in Tehran. No mention was made of her arrest in the report.

Mr. Hachemi said Saturday she went to Iraq after the U.S.-led war there had ended. After 1˝ months in Iraq, she travelled to Iran.

Ms. Kazemi called her mother in the town of Shiraz in southern Iran to say she had been detained in Tehran.

Ms. Kazemi's mother alerted Canadian Embassy officials in Tehran about her daughter's plight.

Friends who visited her in hospital Tuesday said she was unconscious, with severe cuts and bruises on her face and head. They said she had been given a 50-50 chance of survival.