Post-election attitudes

"You have clearly interfered in Iran's internal affairs and were naïve enough to think that you can damage the system but with God's help you failed," Ahmadinejad said.

The EU and US have not acknowledged Ahmadinejad's re-election. They have also decried the country's harsh response towards the protests that took place over the alleged election fraud as well detained dissidents.

"You (world powers) will be held accountable for this ballyhoo you made in the world," the president said.

Tehran has several times accused the West of having provoked the mass protests against the government, and condemned Western support for the dissidents.

The June 12 election, which secured Ahmadinejad's re-election, plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, exposed deepening divisions in its ruling elite and set off a wave of protests that left 26 people dead.

The row with the EU has prompted calls in parliament to revise relations with some European states, namely Britain, France, Germany and Sweden.

Senior officials sound calls to condemn EU

A senior Iranian ayatollah called Friday for a confrontation with the European Union over its support for recent political protests in Iran.

"The foreign ministry should adopt measures and confront the European states in a way that they regret their approach and apologize to the Iranian nation," said Ahmad Ahmad Khatami during the Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran.

The EU has supported the popular unrest against alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election and has not acknowledged the re-election of President Ahmadinejad.

The ayatollah - deputy head of an influential clerical body, the Experts Assembly, and a close aide of the president - condemned a statement by Sweden, which now holds the rotating EU presidency, in support of the detained protestors as blatant interference in the internal affairs of the Iranian establishment.

The 27 EU states have also summoned the Iranian ambassadors in their countries and voiced their protests over what they call "show trials" against more than 100 detained demonstrators, local embassy employees and former reformist officials.

The EU has been singled out by Iran for what it calls "meddling" in its state affairs and for the public criticism of its mass trial of moderates charged with spying and trying to topple the clerical establishment after the disputed president vote.

Senior Foreign Ministry official Hassan Qashqavi added more furl to the fire when he accused the West of interference during a weekly news conference.

"Do we interfere in other countries' state matters? Why should they interfere in ours? Iran will strongly resist such meddling," Qashqavi said. "Why don't they (the West) leave us and our people alone?"

President names first women ministers since 1979

The president's criticism on Sunday came as Ahmadinejad announced the appointment of at least two women in his new cabinet - the first female ministers in Iran since the Islamic revolution of 1979.

Speaking on state television, the president said that the ministries of health and social welfare will have female ministers.

Ahmadinejad added that there might be a third female minister, but did not disclose the ministry.

The president declined however to comment on local reports that chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili had been appointed as new foreign minister to succeed Manouchehr Mottaki.

The full list of the cabinet is to be presented to the parliament on Wednesday for approval.

The Mehr news agency reported on August 16 that Jalili would be the most likely candidate for the foreign ministry post.

The two women are Fatemeh Ajorlou at social welfare and Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi at the health ministry.

Ahmadinejad further said that he has appointed the cleric Hojatoleslam Moslehi as information minister and head of intelligence service.

The ministers of cooperatives, economy and industries have been reinstated, the president added.

nda/AFP/dpa/Reuters
Editor: Andy Valvur