TEHERAN, IRAN - IRANIAN election results showed conservatives on course to keep control of Parliament, but some were expected to join reformists in flaying President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's handling of the economy.

Conservatives have taken 120 seats in the 290-member assembly against 46 for reformists so far, the state Press TV station reported on Saturday, citing the Interior Ministry. Four seats had gone to independents and 30 more would go to run-off votes.

The Interior Ministry, which supervised Friday's vote, has said a final nationwide tally might take a day or two.

'The president will face more challenges with the next Parliament than he did with the current one,' said Mr Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a close ally of reformist ex-President Mohammad Khatami.

If confirmed, the 46 reformist seats cited by Press TV takes them beyond the 40 or so they had in the outgoing Parliament.

But Iran's Fars News Agency gave a slightly different tally for the 170 seats so far decided, saying conservatives had 125 and reformists 35, while independents had 10.

Direct comparison with the previous assembly is complicated by fluid factional loyalties and a large group of independents.

Reformists were upbeat. 'We announce with honour that we gained victory in an unequal election,' Mr Abdollah Nasseri, spokesman for the reformist coalition, said, adding 70 per cent of seats had been 'predetermined' for conservatives.

Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi told state TV about 70 per cent of seats had gone to 'principlists' - a term conservatives use to describe their loyalty to the Islamic Republic's ideals. He said 178 seats had been decided - without giving a breakdown - with 56 going to run-off votes.

The minister said final results for Teheran's 30 seats may not be announced for a day or two. State TV said conservatives were ahead with more than 20 seats after counting about one third of the 2 million votes cast in the city.

Split conservatives

'The 'principlist' forces have scored very important victories in all major Iranian cities,' said Mr Ali Larijani, former chief nuclear negotiator and Ahmadinejad rival, who won a seat in Qom, a city south of Teheran.

An Iranian political analyst, who asked not to be named, predicted a rougher ride for Mr Ahmadinejad in the next assembly.

He said splits had opened up among conservatives - who range from Islamic revolutionary radicals, like Mr Ahmadinejad, to his more pragmatic critics - jockeying for position before the 2009 race for the presidency.

Reformists and some conservatives have accused Mr Ahmadinejad of fuelling inflation, now at 19 per cent, by lavishly spending Iran's windfall oil revenues on subsidies, loans and handouts.

Pro-reform politicians have also rebuked Mr Ahmadinejad for vitriolic speeches that have kept Iran on a collision course with the United Nations over Teheran's disputed nuclear plans.

Mr Larijani has also queried the president's style.

However, Mr Ahmadinejad has won public backing from Iran's top authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has explicitly endorsed his handling of the nuclear row.

The interior minister put turnout at roughly 60 per cent of the Islamic Republic's 44 million eligible voters.

The government had called for a high turnout as a show of defiance for Iran's 'enemies' in the West. Reformists had also urged their supporters to dent conservative power by voting.

The United States, Iran's harshest Western critic, said the vetting process for candidates meant the outcome of voting in the world's fourth largest oil-producing country was 'cooked'.

The Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists, barred many reformists when it screened potential candidates on criteria such as commitment to Islam and the clerical system.

Washington has led international efforts to penalise Iran for failing to allay suspicions that it is seeking nuclear weapons. Teheran says its nuclear programme is purely civilian. -- REUTERS