Tehran, Aug 31 (IANS): Iran, which gave contracts to publishers in China to print copies of the Quran, has said the books are full of spelling mistakes, the Mehr news agency reported.

Several Iranian publishers had asked for copies of the Quran to be published in China. However, the copies came back littered with spelling mistakes, said Ahmad Haji-Sharif, director of the Department of Evaluation on Publication of the Holy Quran.

The copies were cheaply made in China but are being sold in Iran for much more than they are really worth, he said.

He said that if a customer finds out that the actual value of a Chinese copy is less, but it is full of mistakes, he would certainly prefer to purchase an Iranian product with better quality and bearing no mistakes.

Iran has high quality printing presses and publishing firms, with around 1,000 of them publishing the Quran, he said. "So why should we send our publications outside Iran?" he asked.