Iranian judicial officials have blocked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from visiting Evin prison in the capital, Tehran, BBC News reported.

Ahmadinejad had asked to visit soon after a close aide of his was imprisoned there while the president was in New York last month. But a judicial official said the visit was not appropriate at a time when Iran faced pressing economic problems.

"As we are faced with special circumstances and the country's priorities are the economy and people's living conditions, all authorities should focus on solving key issues... visiting a prison is extraneous," chief prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie told ISNA news agency.

"More than seven years of his presidency have passed, and no request was made during that time," he said.

Ejeie indicated that Ahmadinejad's desire to visit the prison was linked to "a person affiliated to (the government) in prison," apparently a reference to presidential press adviser Ali Akbar Javanfekr, who was arrested for allegedly insulting Iranian leaders.

Iran's judiciary is controlled by conservative hard-liners close to the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.