TEHERAN - MORE than 7,100 people have registered to run in Iran's March parliamentary election when reform-minded opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hope to profit from growing disenchantment with the hardline leader.

The March 14 vote could prove a tough test for reformists seeking a political revival, after they were beaten by conservatives in a 2004 parliamentary election for failing to meet their promise to create a freer country.

They also expect the conservative-controlled Guardian Council, which vets candidates for all elections, to block most of their candidates as it has done in the past.

And analysts say reformists stand a better chance than in previous elections because many Iranians criticise Ahmadinejad for failing to deliver on promised economic change, including sharing out Iran's oil wealth more fairly.

The official IRNA news agency reported on Saturday that 7,129 people had registered by Friday's deadline. Candidates will compete for 290 seats in parliament.

'Based on the latest figures some 7,129 people have registered for the upcoming election ... among them 580 are women,' IRNA quoted Interior Ministry official Mohammad Hossein Mousapour as saying.

The result of the election will have no direct effect on policies such as Iran's nuclear work, which is ultimately determined by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But political analysts say it may influence the debate.

Among the last candidates who signed up on Friday was Ali Larijani, a close adviser to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. A group of moderate-conservative parties had nominated him as their candidate for the vote.

Larijani, a rival of Ahmadinejad, stepped down as chief nuclear negotiator in October, exposing a rift with Ahmadinejad about tactics in handling nuclear talks with the West.

Iran is at odds with the United States and its European allies over its nuclear programme, which the West fears is a cover to build nuclear arms. Iran denies the charge.

Former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahian, accused by a Swiss judge of ordering the killing of a member of an Iranian opposition group in 1990 in Switzerland, also has signed up.

A German court in 1996 issued an arrest warrant for Fallahian in connection with the so-called Mykonos affair in which the mid-ranking cleric was accused of having played a role in the killing of four Kurdish dissidents in Berlin in 1992.

Iran denies any involvement in the killings.

The final list of approved candidates will be announced on March 5. Candidates will then have one week to campaign. -- REUTERS

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