Iran's supreme leader endorses Ahmadinejad

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday formally endorsed hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president for a new four-year term amid intense political turmoil in the Islamic republic.

But in a sign of the escalating feud between rival political factions over Ahmadinejad's hotly disputed re-election, opposition leaders were absent from the ceremony, state-owned Al-Alam television said.

"The supreme leader appointed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the president of the Islamic Republic for a second term," the Arabic-language channel said.

"Iranian people have voted in favour of a fight against arrogance, to confront destitution and spread justice," it quoted Khamenei as saying. But among those who did not attend were Ahmadinejad's defeated rivals Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, it said.

Iran is grappling with its worst turbulence since the 1979 Islamic revolution, with deadly street protests, a raft of political trials and increasing divisions among the ruling elite.

Ahmadinejad, 52, is due to be sworn in before parliament on Wednesday following his June 12 election win, but is under fire from his own hardline camp, which has questioned his loyalty to Khamenei.

The announcement of Ahmadinejad's landslide victory was met with a vast outpouring of anger with massive street protests and opposition complaints the vote was rigged. At least 30 people were killed and several thousand protesters rounded up, including prominent reform figures and journalists.

Ahmadinejad's re-election has also created a rift among the clergy, with several senior clerics siding with the opposition and condemning the post-election violence and the regime's treatment of its critics. The authorities hit back with a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters, whom they accuse of seeking to overthrow the regime.

On Saturday, around 100 people were put on trial in a revolutionary court, a move slammed by the opposition which accused the authorities of torture but welcomed by hardliners who in turn accused Mousavi and Khatami with treason. Another 10 people went on trial yesterday.

Khamenei has strongly backed Ahmadinejad and dismissed the vote-rigging allegations, accusing Western governments, Britain in particular, of instigating unrest. London dismissed the allegation and tensions rose after Iran detained nine local British embassy staffers on accusations of provoking riots. All have since been released.

Relations with the West worsened during Ahmadinejad's first term because of his frequent verbal attacks on Israel and his uncompromising stance on Tehran's nuclear drive, which world powers fear is a cover for weapons development.