Iran's Reformist Ex-president Set to Stand Against Ahmadinejad

Mohammed Khatami, the reformist Iranian leader, is close to declaring his candidacy for June's presidential election against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, raising hopes for a dramatic contest that could help to ease the country's international isolation.

Khatami has told supporters that he will "fulfill his promises" and announce his readiness to run, despite personal reluctance, it was reported yesterday. Relatives, allies and friends say a formal announcement will be made within days.

Speculation has been rife for months about whether the former president will challenge the controversial incumbent. If he does, it will dramatise the choice for Iranian voters - between renewed reform and a grim political and economic status quo that is likely to mean tougher international sanctions over the nuclear issue.

"I should fulfil my promises made to [Iran's] people and announce my readiness [to run], despite my personal wish," Khatami was quoted as telling youth groups. "Sometimes a human being has to make decisions that are against his will."

Khatami served two terms as president, from 1997 to 2005, when he advocated dialog with the west and did much to break down barriers of mistrust. But reform efforts were dealt a blow when Ahmadinejad became president in 2005.

The complex domestic political scene in Iran, which this week marked the 30th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, is dominated by the highly conservative supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last say on most key issues, and by strains between clerics and the powerful revolutionary guards.

Jockeying before the election is attracting intense interest because of the call by President Barack Obama for a new US approach to Iran. The two countries have had no relations since 1979.

The impasse over Iran's nuclear ambitions and its support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza stand in the way of a thaw, as does the residue of hostility dating back to the 1950s.

The new US administration is grappling with the question of whether it should seek better relations before June and risk handing Ahmadinejad a prize that could boost his chances of winning.

Ahmadinejad has demanded that Washington apologize for decades of "crimes". But at home he has been attacked by many for mismanaging the economy and by some for his confrontational stances on foreign affairs.